


I will find you

by German_potato_of_doom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alfor is Alive, Angst, Bottom Keith (Voltron), Confused Lance, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Eventual Smut, Fluff and Smut, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Inquisitor Lotor, Inquisitor Zarkon, Keith and Lance are being cute, M/M, Mage Lance, Mages, Magic, Reincarnated Lance, Reincarnation, SPANISH CURSEWORDS, This is reeally angsty at times, Top Lance, Visions, Voltron basically consists of mages/witches, Witches, cuban hunk, don't ask why hunk is cuban it's plot reasons, fluffiest fluff to ever fluff, mage keith, most complicated timeline ever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2018-11-06 14:54:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11038473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/German_potato_of_doom/pseuds/German_potato_of_doom
Summary: "It had been a trap all along, to see if he really was what they thought he was.And he had fallen for it.The voices got louder, got closer, but he couldn't bring himself to care anymore. He was already drifting off.The last thing he saw was the light of the rising sun, piercing through the treetops. The last thing he thought of,was Keiths smile ..."Lance woke up screaming, crying and drenched in his own sweat. He has always had those dreams but never had they scared him like that...-Magic AU where Lance is a reborn mage(It's really complicated and I'm bad at summaries, so please trust me on this one)





	1. Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Well hey there buddies,   
> This is like my first Klance fic ever so please have mercy on me...   
> A few Infos before I start though,   
> \- This story mainly plays in 2022 so it's like five years from now, (but just because the math wouldn't add up otherwise, - I swear to god this DAMN timeline!  
> \- The major character death warning stands for Lance since he - well like it says in the summary he is REBORN, so he had to die somehow first  
> \- If you're confused, please feel free to ask as many questions as you want - well concerning this chapter at least I don't want to spoil anyone...   
> \- Rated M for language (you'll see I swear a lot) and the rating may go up when there's smut in the later chapters
> 
> I think this should be all for now   
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, and if you do please feel free to tell me what you think so I can make this story even better!  
> Thank you very much and Tschau mit V, 
> 
> Your German potato of doom

_"Keith was crying._   
_He could only watch as the young mage ran around the small hut, packing together all his belongings and shouldering his bag._   
_He was crying too._   
_The whole room felt too small although it was now almost empty. He felt the weight of those purple eyes on his body, but he couldn't bring himself to look at Keith. If he did he would never be able to leave him like that._   
_"Go now...", Keith whispered. Even so he could hear the slight crack in his usually calm voice. "... You have to meet up with the others ... Hunk, Katie, Matt and Takashi, they are waiting."_   
_"...", He shook his head, tears still falling from his eyes, trailing down his cheeks in small rivers._   
_"You have to!", Keith exclaimed. It reminded him of the last cries of a dying animal. Broken and desperate. "Wait for me there... Two days. Give me two days. If I'm not there by then you have to leave. Takashi knows where to go."_   
_Again he shook his head. "..."_   
_Keith closed his eyes, his face a mixture of anger, pain and sadness as he clenched his hands to fists._   
_"You idiot!", he was yelling now._   
_"Go! Get away already!" He wouldn't, not without him._   
_"I'll be fine! They won't get me!", Keith was shaking, and they both knew that it wasn't from anger. Keith was afraid, a sign that he not even he believed his words._   
_He laid a hand on the young mages shoulder, tugging him slightly closer._   
_Keith collapsed against his chest, sobbing uncontrollably now. He did too._   
_They both knew what Keith was about to do. It was complete and utter suicide. If they parted ways now they would never see eachother again._   
_"I'll find you.", Keith sobbed "When I reincarnate I will find you."_   
_He swallowed thickly and ran a hand through the soft bangs of raven hair as if trying to memorize the feeling it left on his fingertips._   
_"You'll wait for me right? It's just two - maybe three centuries...", Keith said, a weak smile playing around his lips. He was trying to play it down, as he so often did._   
_Slowly, cautiously he raised a hand to Keiths cheek, brushing away the tears that just kept flowing._   
_"..."_   
_"I love you too...", Keith whispered before breaking away from him, so he was left feeling alone and cold._   
_"Now go.", Keith said, trying to steady his voice as he pulled out his knife and steadied the bag on his shoulder. He then picked up his vinous cape, putting it on and pulling the hood down over his face as deep as it would allow him to._   
_Finally coming to his senses he did the same with his own, midnight blue cape, pulled down the hood, and picked up his bag._   
_Keith pressed a quick kiss to his lips, pulling away again as soon as their lips met, knowing that he would never be able to let go if he lingered any longer._   
_"I will find you", he repeated once again, though they both knew it was a lie. It was simply not possible._   
_Keith cast him one last look before leaving the hut, running out into the open, ready to face their enemies and lure them away from him._   
_As soon as the door was closed and Keith was gone the very danger he was in hit him. He could literally die if he stayed any longer._   
_His limbs moved on their own, his legs running towards the hidden backdoor and his hands opening it without his permission._   
_He found himself running through the woods._   
_Alone._   
_He had tautened his bow, ready to shoot anything that crossed his path. He had only once used it before, right after Keith had given it to him._   
_Memories flooded his mind, of Keiths proud smile when he had actually made something awesome without using his powers, of their practice session right after to try the bow out..._   
_He still couldn't believe that Keith had put so much effort in something just for him._   
_Keith..._   
_One moment. Just for one moment he didn't pay enough attention. He had let himself space out._   
_When he heard the sound of a cracking branch it was already too late. His legs were knocked out from beneath him and his head hit the ground only seconds later._   
_He groaned in pain when his head started to throb and Keiths bow was taken away from him. When he cracked his eyes open he could see three armed hooded persons hovering over him._   
_A cold, almost numb feeling spread through his entire body._   
_The inquisitors - the ones that were trying to get Keith, him, the others - they found him. He doesn't know how. They were supposed to look for them on the other side of the forrest, where Keith was. But they were here._   
_He was done for, but why did he feel releaved?_   
_"Tell the others we need them here. Didn't think it would be that easy.", the one nearest to him told the one that had taken his bow. The latter nodded and got on his way, while the other squatted down next to him._   
_"Weak", he mumbled. "Not even trying to do something, are we little witch?"_   
_He clenched his hands into fists , feeling the power rising from deep within his body._   
_No. He wasn't just going to give up. If there was just the tiniest chance for him to escape he would take it._   
_He took a few deep breaths before pushing himself off the ground and shooting a blast of energy at the man right in front of him._   
_As fast as he could he started to run. He heard the third one coming after him, but he knew that no one could outrun him. Especially not here. He knew those woods, he knew them because he grew up here. It was as if they were his own._   
_He could make it if he just-_   
_A sharp pain in his right leg brought him to his knees. He rolled over onto his back, his hands immediately flying up to look for the source of the pain._   
_An arrow. Poisoned probably, as he could already feel himself becoming slightly lightheaded and his limbs go numb. There was shouting, there had been more of them around the forest._   
_It had been a trap all along, to see if he really was what they thought he was._   
_And he had fallen for it._   
_The voices got louder, got closer, but he couldn't bring himself to care anymore. He was already drifting off._   
_The last thing he saw was the light of the rising sun, piercing through the treetops. The last thing he thought of,_

_was Keiths smile ..."_

* * *

 

Lance woke up screaming, crying and drenched in his own sweat. He has always had those dreams but never had they scared him like that.   
He sat up and rubbed a shaky hand over his forehead, trying to make sense of what he had just seen. He looked down onto his right leg, where seconds ago in his dream had been an arrow. It felt weird, a faint prickling still lingering in the spot where the arrow should be.   
He stared at the skin there, ran his hand up and down his calf a few times, making sure it really was okay.   
He frowned and picked up the small notebook he kept beside his bed.   
He used it to write down everything he dreamt about, well at least when it was about those dreams, if it was just incoherent none sense he left it out.   
Over the past two years he had filled at least three of those notebooks, but before that he never really thought of his dreams as anything worth writing down.   
That changed when he had first dreamt of Keith. That was maybe two or three months after his 16th birthday. 

Before that he had only ever dreamed of the same things. The island with his never ending forests and almost turquois lakes, his 'dream-family' and practicing his powers with a friend of his. 

Well, a dream-friend of his. 

He never understood a word though. They had just talked gibberish all day that sounded like some weird ass foreign language. And as if that was not enough he never heard what he was saying anyways.   
He felt that his lips moved and that he was talking, but he couldn't hear it. As a kid he never thought to much about it, but the older he got the more it weirded him out.   
As five year old it was okay to dream about having magical powers and living on a big jungle like island but when you're 15? 

Anyways, after he turned 16 something strange happened. It was like any other dream he had had before. He was on his way through the forest, talking with his friend - still neither understanding anything nor hearing his own voice but definitely talking - when he had heard weird noises. The other boy had heard them too and they had begun looking for their source. 

And there he had been, in the middle of the forest, hiding behind what seemed to be a protection spell, holding it up as though it were a shield.

He had been shouting something - even today Lance still doesn't know what exactly Keith had said. Sure, Lance had been able to make out that Keith had said something in English but for some reason not what the words he had said meant. It was as if he had lost any knowledge of the language for this few seconds.   
When he had looked around a little he had found the person Keith had been talking to.   
Probably the smallest person with pretty much the most intense fringe Lance had ever encountered. Her dark blonde hair was put up into a long ponytail that slightly swayed in the breeze. She had looked almost anxious, staring at Keith as if he was crazy.  
Again Keith had said something and wich made her gave up as it seemed before she had closed her eyes and extended a shaking hand.   
Lance had been watching them from a distance together with his friend.   
He had realized that they were training when the girl shot at Keith. Her power was making itself visible as light green streaks colliding with the soft red glow of Keiths shield in the split of a second. 

Lance had watched this display of power with fascination while the other man had seemed more than a little concerned. Again a string of words Lance hadn't been able to understand.   
He had answered him, loudly at that and at some point Keith must have heard them because when Lance had looked at him again their eyes met.   
After that the dream had been over, but ever since that night he only ever dreamed of Keith.  
With a sigh he began writing down the things that had happened in the latest dream he had had. 

It didn't make any sense. It never did. 

Those dreams appeared completely out of order and in no determined intervals. Sometimes two months would pass without a dream, sometimes he would have them seven days in a row. Sometimes he would dream of a summer night and the day after of a day in winter that he spent in the hut with Keith.   
It was like watching the trailer of a romance movie, just snippets of the real thing but enough to draw you in.

Because that's what Keith had done. Drawn him in, made Lance fall for him. You can not dream of someone so beautiful and interesting as Keith for so long and not fall for him.  
And he was not even real. 

He never would be, no matter how much Lance wanted him to be.   
_He is not real...,_ he kept thinking as he brought every heartbreaking moment of the dream down onto the paper. _Not... real..._

With that thought in mind he shut the notebook closed and put it away. Today was going to be a busy day and he needed to get going.

 

* * *

 

When Lance had searched for a college to attend to, the university of Altea had immediately caught his eye.   
Okay, Altea was literally on the opposite side of the US, but it only had the best reviews and really looked great from what he saw on the pictures.   
So, yeah his decision was clearly based on the schools spotless appearance and it's highly praised professors, and definitely not because of the weird pull he felt every time anyone such as mentioned the word Altea. Nope. 

It was just that it felt oddly familiar and somehow safe. 

Like his old room in his parents house back in Florida, or his _abuelitas_ house in Cuba.   
The five hour flight and the three hour drive had worn him out unbelievably, but now that he could see the trademark castle of Altea through the windshield of the car he'd rented, he felt the same pull again, making him feel more awake than he'd had in a whole while. It made his heart beat faster and told him to get there as fast as human possible - wich would have been a weird thing for any other person, but hey! He was in love with a fictional character his _mind_ had created so 'weird' was nothing new to Lance. So he pressed down the gas pedal as hard as he could and sped down the highway.

But now that he could see the trademark castle of Altea through the windshield of the car he'd rented,  he felt the same pull again, making his heart beat faster and telling him to get there as fast as human possible. And yes he was weak, so he pressed down the gas pedal as hard as he could as he sped down the highway.   
About thirty minutes later he found himself standing in front of the huge castle, his chest heaving and his lungs burning. Climbing the stairs to the bridge that seemed to go on for miles had nearly killed him as he had to carry all of his things up with him.   
He was now leaning onto his backpack that he had placed on top of his suitcase, trying to catch his breath.   
The view was worth it though. The castle that was positioned on a tall cliff, overlooking a big lake whose turquois color reminded him an awful lot of those from his dreams.   
He felt his heart clench painfully at the memory. After the dream he'd had that night he wasn't sure if he was ever going to be able to look at those dreams again like he used to... 

"Hey buddy, you doing okay?"

Lance looked up, squinting against the way too bright sunlight, facing a real giant of a man. He nodded and stood up straight to get a  better look at the stranger.   
He was like really, really tall, broadly built and with skin like chocolate. His shaggy dark hair fell around his face in long bangs that stopped just above his cheekbones. Inbetween the black strands Lance could see a bright orange headband peaking out.  
Despite his rather intimidating appearance he was looking down at Lance with a friendly smile and kind brown eyes.

"Y-yeah just a little uh-", he croaked and cleared his throat , "... the stairs really killed me."

The other man let out a full body laugh, his nose crinkling a little and his mouth curling into a wide grin. "Ha they really got me too when I first came here..."  
Lance chuckled weakly. "Yeah... well I hope so or else I'm really screwed."

The other man eyed him curiously. There definitely was something weird about him, like I-have-dreams-of-a magical-me-weird, but kind of in a positive way. It felt the same way as it felt with Altea, new but still familiar.

"Hunk Garrett", he said after a while, extending a giant hand for him to shake. 

_Hunk..._ Lance thought. The name seemed familiar, though Lance wasn't able to place it.

There was this small twisting feeling in his gut as he took it but he shoved the thought aside quickly. 

"Lance McLain Alvarez. Nice to meet you.", Lance replied. He usually didn't use both his last names but he just felt like it would be apropriate. 

Hunks eyes glinted softly as a hint of an emotion Lance couldn't quite place flashed over his features. It was gone again pretty quickly though. 

"McLain ,huh?", Hunk remarks with a grin. 

Lance frowned lightly, not really getting what Hunk was trying to tell him. "Uh yeah... I kind of just told you."

"You don't happen to be a freshman, do you?", the grin only grew wider revealing lines of pearly white teeth  that stood in a stark contrast against his chocolate like skin tone. 

Lance frown deepened and he squinted a little at Hunk. "Well, I am... my first semester starts next week.", he answered truthfully, "Why?"

Hunk chuckled at the suspicious tone in Lance's voice. 

"Chill Buddy.", he laughed, "I just asked because I am a freshman too and I looked up who my roommate would be. Apparently it's you."

Lance - now finally understanding what Hunk was trying to tell him - let out a nervous laugh. 

"Nice...", he said and looked up at his new roommate, smiling tiredly.

It came out as more of a question than he had first intended but Hunk just smiled kindly.

"You must be tired, huh?"

Lance nodded, "You have no idea..."

Hunk cautiously patted him on the shoulder as if he was afraid he would knock Lance over - wich technically wasn't all that far fetched. 

"How about I help you getting all that stuff up to our room? The castle can be a little confusing if you're new... or tired.", Hunk offered with another one those nice smiles. 

Lance bit his lip contemplating the offer. On one hand, the castle did look a little intimidating and he could barely manage to keep his eyes halfway open. On the other hand, Hunk had been obviously about to leave to... well where ever he had wanted to go and he wouldn't want to stress him too much right away.

"Aw come on Lance! Not so shy.", Hunk grinned as if reading his mind. 

Lance still hesitated though. "I don't know didn't you have plans already...?"

Hunk laughed, easily picking up Lance's suitcase and leaving the other boy with his backpack.   
"Well, they just changed.", he called over his shoulder as he walked off towards the entrance. 

Lance shook his head and smiled to himself as he followed Hunk suit.  
Right then and there he decided that it had been a good choice to give in to the pull that had urged him to go to Altea, because that certainly was a good start.

* * *

 

  
Their room was rather big for a dormitory room, though it wasn't really a dormitory. It turned out that not only the lecture halls, classrooms and offices were accommodated in the castle but also the dormitories of the students.   
Yes, the castle was that big. And more up to date than it's outside let on.    
But back to their room.   
The walls were of a bright white reflecting the sunlight that filtered through the tall window. It was more or rather like two rooms in one, a similar set of a bed, wardrobe and desk on each side of the room. The one that was - very obviously - Hunks was decorated with a few posters, a small plant sitting on a bedside table and the white bedding the school provided had been replaced by a bright yellow one.   
It was rather spacious and Lance found himself already planning out how to decorate his half of the room.   
Hunk watched him with a grin and put down the suitcase in front of Lance's wardrobe. 

"Pretty neat right?"

Lance nodded, suddenly feeling the weariness of the day hitting him with full force. He stumbled towards the bed dropping the backpack before he flopped down into the soft cushions, landing face first in the pillow.

He heard Hunk chuckle behind him as he curled up into a more comfortable position. 

"I should warn you though...", he mumbled and cracked his eyes open just a little so that he could look at Hunk. "I tend to have ... well let's say nightmares."  
Hunk didn't seem all too surprised, but Lance wasn't really paying attention anymore anyways.   
"If I scream or say something ... weird in the middle of the night, just ... ", Lance sighed pictures of Keith, smiling, crying, laughing, screaming, flooded his mind. "... don't wake me. Go back to sleep if I wake you, okay?"

Hunk shook his head, smiling and pulled out his phone. 

"I'd advise you to get yourself some noise canceling head- Hey watcha doing...?", Lance mumbled, frowning and propping  himself up onto his elbow. 

"Texting a ....", Hunk hesitated a second before smiling almost sadly, "Just texting an old friend of mine, I remembered something he needs to know."

Lance didn't really process the answer but nodded anyways.   
Man was he tired. 

His head hit the pillow again only seconds later and he finally gave in to the urge to close his eyes.

* * *

_The voices around him just got louder and louder and louder. The tears streaming down his cheeks felt searing, burning his skin._   
_His burning eyes scanned the crowd gathering around the stake._

_Please, god don't let him be here..., he thought panic rising in his chest._

_The black mop of hair was nowhere to be seen as his was read out. It was Spanish._   
_He closed his eyes and swallowed thickly._

_Keith wasn't there. He would be safe. Everything would be fine._   
_He would be gone, but Keith? Keith would live..._

_The mayors speech was over. What meant that he was ... over._   
_He opened his eyes again._

_He would take this like a man. He wouldn't scream, wouldn't struggle he fully intended to keep what little pride he had left._   
_The executioners steps sounded heavy and cut trough the tense silence like thunder through a summer night._   
_He straightened his posture as the stake was lit. The heat began rising through the ground he was standing on._   
_Not hot enough to burn, yet just enough to be felt._   
_He kept his chin raised high, his eyes still raking over the crowd._

_That's when he saw it, that's when his facade crumbled._

_A wine red hood._

_A wine red hood with pitch black hair poking out from underneath it, big violet eyes staring at him, rimmed with tears._

_No._

_NO, NO,_ NO!

_He screamed now, struggled against the ropes that held him tied to the stake._   
_What was he doing her? He must be insane! He had to leave, NOW!_

_He was crying and screaming in agony, but it was not because of the searing pain snaking it's way up his calves, burning his flesh down to the bone._

_Keith._

_This idiot. This stupid, stupid idiot._   
_They could find him, didn't he know how dangerous this was?!_   
_No matter how much they loved each other, how could he do this?! He was being burned alive, why would Keith want to be there?!_   
_They had promised each other that they wouldn't do this if it were ever to happen to one of them._

_The pain became unbearable as it slowly consumed him, ate up his flesh and turned him to coal. He felt the power draining out of him, his arms burning up in the heat making it impossible for him to move. But his screams were yet to cease._

_Every fiber of what was left of his existence screamed at Keith to leave, that it was too late, that he should save himself, that he loved him...._   
_Finally, finally, someone stepped in and pulled Keith with him. He recognized those broad shoulders this giant frame, and he thanked him, he prayed that he knew how much that meant to him._

_He could finally give up, he could...._

  
_His head rolled back against the wooden pale he was tied to. The fire reaching his neck burning everything to the core that it touched._   
_It hurt, it hurt like nothing that he had ever felt before, but it was fine. It was fine because Keith would be safe._

_He couldn't feel anything but pain anymore at this point, but he knew the tears were there._   
_He could finally give up, he could..._

_... he could finally go in peace._

  
When Lance eyes flew open it was dark outside.

He had been crying again and for a moment he couldn't remember were he was. He sat up, running a hand through the damp hair that stuck to his forehead.   
The tears were still flowing as he looked around the room, his breath ragged and sounding awfully teary. 

His eyes fell onto Hunk and he froze. 

This giant human being was huddled up against the wall, looking as small and fragile as only a child could.   
His dark eyes were staring at him, wide and almost scared. He was shivering, clutching onto his blanket for dear life. 

Lance stared at him.   
It was his fault, he had scared Hunk to death. All his fault. 

He was about to get up, to apologize or at least try to calm his roommate, when he heard something.   
Just a sigh of air that seemed unbelievably loud in the deafening silence of the room. 

"Not again"

 


	2. An old new friend 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "HUNK FUCKING GARRETT", a barely recognizable female voice called - no shouted. "YOU BETTER BE IN THERE AND OPEN THE DOOR ABOUT RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!"  
> Lance shot up straight at the threatening boom of that woman's voice. When he looked over at Hunk, his face had paled considerably and he could see pure terror in his big brown eyes.   
> "I'M NOT KIDDING I'LL TEAR THIS MOTHERFUCKING DOOR DOWN IF YOU DON'T OPEN IT IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS!"   
> \- -  
> Introducing a new character and an awful lot of foreshadowing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo, I got a lot to talk about.   
> First of all: THANK YOU, like seriously, I feel like the first chapter was really appreciated and guys, you have no idea how happy I am.   
> Now down to busyness,   
> 1st, I decided to break this chapter into half because in my head it really seems like there's a lot to come so buckle up buddies there'll be a lot of fun  
> 2nd, I did some sketches for chapter one on my tumblr (artistwithproblems), so if you want to you can give it a look  
> 3rd, I know I'm crazy but I actually put the music I used while writing the story so far into a playlist on spotify (It's called 'I will find you' just like the story lol) so yeah, if you like music while reading you might wanna check it out.   
> And lastly,   
> I'll try to update ASAP, so you can expect a chapter AT LEAST once a week ;)
> 
> That was it so far, I hope you enjoy this, though I think it's kind of lame compared to the last chapter - please stay tuned I promise it'll get interesting soon.
> 
> Tschau mit V, your German potato of doom ^^

_Not again_

  
Hunks words rang in Lance's ears, heavy and somewhat scary. 

He got up and staggered over to his new roommates bed, sitting down on it's edge and looking at the huddled figure in front of him with a mixture of confusion and sympathy.

"Hunk, hey, it's okay...", he whispered, his throat feeling strangely dry. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I told you it could happen."

Hunk snapped out of it in the fracture of a second. His arms fell from the scrunched up blanket to the mattress and his teary eyes gained focus again. 

Lance gave him a weak smile. "You okay buddy?"

Taking a shaky breath Hunk nodded. 

"'M fine... It just - ", he ran a hand through his hair. "That was pretty scary."

"Yes it was...", Lance replied, "Sorry again, but I really can't help it."

Hunk shook his head. "No, it's okay. It's not your fault.", he said, his face still a little pale. 

There was a beat of silence were neither of them said anything. It felt heavy, almost suffocating. Lance decided that he had to do something. His heart was still racing and so was his mind. 

He died. 

He had been burned _alive_!  
And yet the only thing that seemed to trouble him was this one big question.

_What about Keith?_

He had seen that someone had taken him away but did they get away without being captured? 

He gritted his teeth as he rummaged through his backpack for the small blue notebook and a pencil. Keith was such an idiot. Why make promises if he wasn't going to keep them? He could have died peacefully, not having to worry about anything because he would have known Keith was safe, but no! Keith had to go and risk his life just to see him one more time.

Lance's movements faltered a little. 

What the fuck was he thinking?! He sounded pathetic.   
_NONE. OF. THIS. IS. REAL._ , he repeated again, trying his best to snap out of it. 

Thankfully his inner turmoil was interrupted by Hunk who seemed a lot more collected now. "What are you doing?"

Lance looked up from his notebook where he had already written down a few things about the dream while silently cursing Keith for being so damn reckless. 

"I uh, I'm writing down what I dreamt about.", Lance answered looking from his notebook to Hunk and back. 

He didn't know why but he felt like Hunk wouldn't judge him because of the dreams, he felt like he could tell him so he didn't stop himself from rambling on. 

"I've always had those weird dreams were everything was magic and I was in this jungle and it was all cotton candy and unicorns.", He explained while scribbling into the notebook. "As a kid I found it pretty cool. Used to tell my mamá all about them, like the cool stuff I could do with this blue glowing stuff, or the adventures I went on with my dream-buddy. But they never stopped and it started to weird me out a little. I mean it's totally crazy for a 18 year old to still dream of wizards and stuff like that right?" 

Lance looked up from the paper again and.... Hunk looked not as confused as he thought he would. It somehow just encouraged him further to keep talking. 

"It was weird but I never really worried about it too much. They were harmless. But recently..."

He didn't have to finish the sentence for Hunk to understand. The other just nodded.   
Again there was silence, the only noise in the room was there breathing and the slight scratching of a pen against paper. 

"Do you think they mean something?", Hunk asked quietly.   
That was not anywhere near the reaction had expected, and to be honest, he was grateful that Hunk didn't think he was nuts. 

"To be honest? I don't know.", Lance muttered tiredly. "I'm trying to connect the dots by writing everything down but... I just feel like it makes even less sense when I start thinking about it."

Hunk huffed a laugh, "Seems legit."

Lance laughed a little himself as he placed the notebook on the nightstand and laid back down. He looked at his phone to check the time - 3:16 am - when he heard Hunk arrange his blanket and pillow. 

"Lance?", the other man asked after a beat of silence. 

"Yeah?"

"What happened in your dream?", Hunks voice sounded almost timid, as if he didn't know wether he was allowed to ask or not. 

"Do you know those kinds of dreams were you're falling and it goes on forever?", Lance asked looking at the blank ceiling. 

"Yeah, had a few of those over the time."

Lance nodded slowly, feeling the same weariness from earlier slowly creeping back into his system. He took a deep breath and looked over at his roommate who he found was already looking at him. 

"Well it was kind of one of those just that - ", Lance bit his lip, thinking back to the searing pain etching into every fiber of his being. "... just that I was burned on a stake."

Hunk didn't say anything except for a soft 'shit'. He wasn't looking surprised or scared like others would have. He looked even worse.   
Like he was already familiar with something like this. There was something way more deep and sad etched into his features. Lance didn't even dare to ask. 

"I think we should get some more sleep.", Hunk then said. Lance could hear that he was trying to get rid of the tense mood. 

"Yeah, it's probably the best... ", Lance sighed, tiredly rubbing a hand over his face. 

"Good night then."

"Night Hunk.", Lance replied and rolled onto his side.

He had a hard time going back to sleep. His mind was still reeling.  
He couldn't get over the weird way Hunk acted. Yes he was nice and probably the best roommate Lance could have gotten, but something was off about him. 

About everything. 

The pull he felt towards this town, this school. The familiar air around Hunk. His dreams and their sudden turn of events.

_Not again_

What did it mean? Why did Hunk say that?   
He would definitely get a headache from all this thinking. There were so many unanswered questions...

By the time he had calmed his thoughts a little, he realized just how tired he really was. He was enveloped by the soft cushions of sleep almost instantly, the last thing on his mind being those two words. 

_Not again_

* * *

 

When Lance woke up again, it was to a hysteric Hunk who was pacing through the room cursing all the way through it.   
Lance scrunched his nose up and buried his face deeper in his pillow. 

_Just five more minutes...._

"I'm _dead_. Totally fucked, she'll kill me. KILL ME"

Lance sighed and lifted his head a little. No more sleep then.

"Hunk who is going to kill you?", he asked, his voice still a little scratchy from sleeping. 

Hunk stopped in his tracks looking back at Lance with wide brown eyes. "Shit did I wake you?"

Lance chuckled and rubbed his eyes a little. "Yeah but don't worry. Now answer, who will kill you?"

Hunk sighed and slumped down onto his desk chair. 

"My ... girlfriend, Shay.", he tapped away on his phone nervously. "I forgot to tell her that I wouldn't be coming yesterday, and when I woke up just now I had six missed calls and three very pissed voice mails."

Lance hissed in sympathy. "Shit dude. Reminds me of that one time my battery died and two hours later I had ten missed calls from my mamá..."

Hunk nodded, "Yeah kinda like that."

Lance propped himself up onto his elbows and kicked the blanket to his feet. "I assume you were going to meet her yesterday before you stumbled upon me huh?"

Hunk looked up at Lance and probably immediately picked up on what he was thinking, because the next thing that left his mouth was: "Lance it's not your fault."

Lance laughed  a little. "Well I never said that but if you put it that way..."

"No, seriously.", Hunk sighed as he spun around in his desk chair a little. "It's completely on me. I should have texted her right away."

Lance fell back onto the mattress and continued his staring contest with the ceiling. He really would have to do something about that stupid blank space....   
"You know I could cover for you.", Lance said after a while. "I mean, I could tell her that we met and you wanted to show me around a little because I am your roommate and have never been here before."

Hunk huffed a sympathetic laugh. "Oh my sweet summer child... you don't know my Shay."

Lance frowned a little.

"Now don't get me wrong, she is the perfect girl and I love her to the moon and back, but she is god damn scary when she's angry. ", Hunk explained. "So believe me when I say that you don't wanna cover me right n-"

He was cut off by a harsh knock to the door.   
Well 'knock' was a little understated. Maybe he should rather call it a kick to the door. 

"HUNK FUCKING GARRETT", a barely recognizable female voice called - no shouted. "YOU BETTER BE IN THERE AND OPEN THE DOOR ABOUT RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!"

Lance shot up straight at the threatening boom of that woman's voice. When he looked over at Hunk, his face had paled considerably and he could see pure terror in his big brown eyes. 

"I'M NOT KIDDING I'LL TEAR THIS MOTHERFUCKING DOOR DOWN IF YOU DON'T OPEN IT IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS!" 

Lance scrambled to his feet at the same time as Hunk did, both sprinting for the door hectically.   
But Lance was faster, he knew he would be. 

He gripped the doorknob tight and pulled it open.

"No-", Hunk screeched but the door was already opened. 

In front of Lance stood a girl not much older than him, but BOY. 

She was tall, like really tall for a woman, having maybe two or three full INCHES on him.  Her skin was of a soft caramel tone, much like his own, and combined with her big hazel eyes, brown shoulder-lenght hair and curvy built she was, to say the least, gorgeous. But also really, REALLY scary.   
She glared down at him, burning holes into his skull with the sheer force of anger. Her perfectly trimmed eyebrows furrowed in sharp lines and her reddish painted lips pressed into a tight line. It reminded him an awful lot of his mamás expression when he had fucked up real bad again, just ten times worse and that is something one does not just do. 

But it didn't nearly last as long as Lance would have thought it would as her angry frown twisted into a confused and slightly less angry face.  

"What the -", she scrunched up her nose a bit and squinted at him. "Who the hell are you?"

Lance swallowed thickly, "Uh- uhm I'm..."

She seemed to realize something throughout his awkward stutter session and the anger faded from her face before taking on an apologetic note. 

"Oh god- shit - I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have-", she carded one of her hands through her curly hair, revealing a set of gigantic set of earrings. "Did I get the wrong room? You may have already noticed but uhm, I'm searching Hunk Garrett, my uh boyfriend."

She sounded actually really nice when she wasn't glaring at him as if he had run over her pet or something. He smiled at her sheepishly. 

"Well about that...", he turned around to look at Hunk, who sighed and reluctantly stepped out from behind the door.  

"Hey honey...", he mumbled shyly. 

Shays eyes narrowed dangerously and Lance felt the strong urge to run for his life the second time this morning, dios this girl really was something. 

"You....", she sneered at Hunk and looked about ready to shove Lance out of the way and rip her boyfriend to shreds. "WHY, do you have a phone if you're NOT using it, huh, honey?"

Hunk suddenly seemed really small.  
He looked like a kid sneaking into the house late at night even if he should have been home long ago.

"It's my fault.", Lance butted in successfully stopping Shay from going into full on rage mode again. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a puzzled frown. "I ran into him yesterday and well since we're roommates... "

"Roommates?", Shay asked tensely and looked at Hunk again, the sour expression slowly threatening to creep back onto her face. It sounded almost as though Hunk had never told her about a roommate.  

"Uhm yeah well...", Hunk stuttered but again Lance decided to cut him off since Shay seemed a little less angry towards him. 

"Yes.", Lance answered her previous question. "I've never been here before, really, so I asked him if he could show me around a little."

She still didn't look quite happy about it. 

"L-Look... I uh...", Hunk began. "I know I should have told you that I wouldn't be coming. I - I just frogo-"

"Oh you _forgot_?", she asked a hand on her hip and obviously getting right back into the feeling. "So you _forgot_ to pick up your phone too? SIX TIMES?"

"Shay I - I know you worried but-"

"But WHAT Hunk? I thought something happened to you! You know that I don't know what to do without you!"

At some point she had started screaming again, but he realized that okay, while she may have seemed as if she was about to tear him a new one, underneath she was actually really terrified. 

Suddenly Lance felt oddly intrusive. 

"Shay... Shh. I know but... ", Hunk tried to calm her and stepped around Lance to hug his girlfriend. 

"You're an ass you know that?", she mumbled into his big shoulder. "How could you just ditch me like that without a word?"

Hunk huffed a nervous laugh. It seemed like he had gotten through the worst part and Lance was really glad about that. 

"I'm sorry. Really.", Hunk replied. "It's just that..."

Hunk threw a look over his shoulder towards Lance. "Shay I should probably introduce you."

Lance chuckled. "Wow don't you think it's a little late for that?"

Hunk smiled almost sadly - again a little strange but okay - and turned to Shay again who had calmed down but seemed confused again.   
"Shay this is Lance. Lance, Shay."

Shay stared at him with wide doe eyes, not even blinking for a long time. 

"Lance?", she asked as if it suddenly explained everything. 

She looked at Lance and smiled. She had a pretty smile, suited her way better than all those mean expressions. 

"I'm really sorry.", she said with an apologetic smile. "This is probably the worst first expression I've ever made on anyone..."

Lance laughed lightly. "It's okay, you had your reasons."

"Still. I shouldn't have... well you know.", she seemed oddly calm and nice all of a sudden - well if you consider that she was fuming with rage just minutes ago. 

Her face brightened even more as she seemed to have an idea.  
"Let's go out for breakfast!", she said excitedly. "Lance you must be hungry!"

Now she was definitely reminding him of his mamá. He laughed and nodded because seriously, who could look Shay in the eye and tell her no?

"I'm just gonna change out of this real quick...", he said and gestured to the blue v-neck and jeans he'd been wearing for well over 24 hours now. 

Hunk nodded and Shay gave him another smile, before he disappeared back into the room. 

He pulled a fresh shirt and a pair of cargo shorts from his suitcase and changed out of his old clothing when he heard Hunks and Shays muffled voices through the door. 

"Did you at least tell the others?", Shay asked. 

"Yeah I did. I'm sorry I didn't tell you it's just that..."

"I know, it's okay I get it.", she sounded reassuring, comforting. 

"Thanks."

"What did Pidge say?"

Lance frowned and halted his movements. He really didn't mean to eavesdrop but ... what is a Pidge?

"They said they'd be on their way, you know them."

"When do you think they'll be here?"

Lance continued pulling his shirt over his head. So Pidge was probably a friend of them, but what should Hunk tell them and why?

"In the evening at best.", Hunk answered sounding a little mischievous. "Again, you know them. Especially how they drive."

He heard Shay chuckle at that and decided that it would be just plain rude to listen any further since he had been done changing for a short while now. 

He walked into the hallway again, giving the couple a smile.   
Shay grinned and excitedly told him about where they were going to go to and that they made the best pancakes ever. 

Lance really liked her and he really liked Hunk as well but still... 

Something felt off.


	3. An old new friend 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "MOVE PEASANTS!", the door was kicked open violently and slammed against the wall.  
> "ROYALTY. HAS. ARRIVED."   
> Lance blinked a few times at the small person that stood in the door with puffed out chest and glinting glasses.   
> Before he could say something a big duffelbag hit his face and he was knocked backwards. 
> 
> "Good catch new one.", they quipped as they flopped down on Hunks bed. 
> 
> Hunk grinned and Shay did her best not to laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well  
> So much for updating weekly.  
> I promise it was worth it though. I think I never wrote a chapter that long for anything I've ever written. 
> 
> So yeah,   
> It's starting to get REALLY complicated now, so yeah, have some fun ;)
> 
> (And thank you all SO much for the kudos, comments and bookmarks ^^)

The pancakes really were the best he had ever had.

All three of them sat at a small table in the corner each of them munching on their breakfast happily. Shay was the first one of them to speak up.

"So... ", she said drawing out the 'o' a little. "Lance, you're not from Altea are you?"

Hunk chuckled lightly and shook his head while scooping up a bit of his scrambled eggs. Lance chuckled as well.

"No I'm not.", Lance answered with a friendly smile. "Born in Cuba, grew up in Florida."

"No way!" , Shays face lit up like a christmas tree at the mention of Cuba, instantly turning to her boyfriend with a broad grin.  
Lance frowned as he popped another piece of pancake into his mouth.

"What?" Hunk sighed as if he'd been defeated and Shay clapped her hands excitedly.

"What?", Lance repeated his frown deepening.

"También soy de Cuba", Hunk muttered reluctantly, looking at Shay as if to say something along the lines of, 'you happy now?'

Lances' eyes however took on nearly the size of the plates in front of them.

"Hablas Español? You can speak Spanish?"

Shay smirked and carded her fingers through Hunks bangs. "Oh he does, and I love it."

Hunk blushed a deep shade of red and hissed at Shay to stop it, while Lance just decided to entirely ignore the fact that she'd just said that.   
"From wich part of Cuba are you?", Lance asked instead.

"Uh my _father ..._ he was from Varadero.", Hunk stuttered, still a little flustered from before.

Lance stared at him.

_What are the odds...?_

There was literally _no way_. It should be impossible, but somehow Lance wasn't surprised, almost as if he had expected it.   
Because it felt as if it should be that way.   
He quickly pushed that thought away and smiled faintly.

"Same here. My abuelita owns a house at the beach."

Hunk replied with a similar smile, "What are the odds right?"

Lance swallowed thickly. Again he felt something weird stir in his stomach as Hunk voiced what he had thought just seconds ago.

"Yeah, what are the odds..."

* * *

 

They continued chatting after that.

They got to know each other and - though Lance still felt odd at times - he found that he really liked Hunk and Shay.  
And after they had all finished their breakfast Shay had suggested that they make a small sightseeing tour through the city since Lance had never been here before, while Shay moved here when she was 16.

They showed him all the old buildings Altea had, there was a really beautiful church and some of the older houses looked awesome too.   
Shay showed him around in the gallery and told him how she was going to major art in their college.

Hunk didn't even look at the pictures she showed them. He must have seen them thousands of times, but that was not why.

No.

All the time he just watched Shay, how she gestured wildly and smiled excitedly as she explained this or that about all those paintings.   
He only had eyes for her, and the soft smile that played around his lips as he watched her had Lances' heart clenching painfully.

Keith used to smile at him like that.

He suddenly saw those wide eyes again, in the middle of a crowd that cheered while he was burning to death.

"Lance are you okay?"

He blinked at Hunk a few times.

_Oh..._ he had stared hadn't he?

Shay turned away from the painting to look at them, a worried frown on her face.

"Yeah sorry just uh a little tired s' all....", he mumbled and shook his head lightly, "So, uh the artist did what again?"

And just like that Shay was back to her previous talking.

* * *

After the gallery Lance had been the one to pick where they should go.

He picked the museum about Alteas history.

Shay had told him earlier that she had helped arranging the rooms for the exhibition to make it something really special and he got a little curious.   
Maybe he would find something that could explain why he felt so drawn to this city.

Hunk seemed almost nervous as they entered wich, again, made Lance frown.

They entered through a tall, white hall that seemed almost too clean to be a public building, it really wasn't all that special at first, a normal museum you might say, but as soon as they entered the exhibition hall Lance face broke into a broad grin.

This really was something else.

The rooms walls were painted black and it was only dimly lit and it felt a bit like he was in a cinema.

But that was not the special thing about this room.

The ceiling, also black, was scattered with small LED's. It was like looking at a clear summer nights sky.

The rest of the room was - of course - equipped with several different kinds of sources of information.   
There were multiple panels framing the walls, lots of pictures, paintings even and at least ten showcases. They were divided into four sections, color coded so that you could clearly see wich article belonged to wich section.

By color coded he meant with light.   
Each and every piece was lined with dozens of LED's so that you could read and see what it was about, but still slightly tinged in color.

"Impressive, huh?", Shay smiled as she slightly nudged Lance's side.

Lance nodded absently. "Which one should I start with...", he muttered, more to himself than to anyone else.

Shay answered anyways. "I'd say you should start with the turquois one, then continue with red, green, white and then yellow. That's the 'correct' order if you want to say so."

Lance nodded slowly and started walking towards the turquois section.

It was about the three founders of Altea.

_Alfor Altea (1819 - 1876), his daughter Allura (1838 - 1889) and a friend of Altea's by the name of James Coran. (1821 - 1874) Alfor and Allura were said to be descendants of natives and british colonists and decided to live in one of the British colonies in the south. Coran was a British man who lived in said colony and a close friend to Altea and his daughter._

Lance read with the texts one by one, curiosity only increasing.

_After Alteas wife died of disease in 1852. They had decided that they should move because the situation began to become heated. Some people threatened them with enslavement and Coran decided that they should do something about it quickly. So they moved to California. A new state in the west that claimed to be a 'free state'. They settled here in 1854 and Coran used what was left of his resources to build the three of them a house, soon to become Alteas famous castle._

There were several paintings of a girl with black hair and bronze skin. She was standing in front of the lake in a few ones, and then in front of a house in another one.   
He supposed it was Allura. 

He moved on to a showcase where there was a display of five small models of Altea, showing five different stages of it's development over the years.

And so he moved on to the next section.

The red one.

It was about some guy that fought in the civil war that from 1861.

The first thing that caught Lance's eye was the old rifle and the sword that hung next to the information panel, bathed in the vibrant red light.   
Next to it hung another, smaller showcase showing off three shining medals.

He huffed a laugh.

Well that must have been one hell of a guy.

But as soon as he turned to the info panel his breath caught in his throat.

_Keith Andrews, truly a hero._

Keith, Lance's eyes flew to the right where a tall framed painting hung, showing a man in a blue uniform with the rifle from the showcase attached to his back and the sword around his waist.

His heart stopped.

Pale skin framed by unruly raven locks falling all across his forehead and gleaming eyes that the artist had accentuated just perfectly.

It was Keith, _his_ Keith.

He stared at the painting for several minutes, in denial of what he was seeing.

It was _impossible_.

Keith was a product of his fantasy, only existing in his dreams though he desperately wished it was different.

And now there was this painting of a guy that fought in a war one and a half centuries ago.

But it was Keith.

He would recognize him anywhere.

He didn't even allow the confusion to settle in, he turned to the information panel, hastily flying over the text.

_Keith Andrews, (1834 - 1898) was one of the first people to settle down in Altea aside from Alfor Altea and his family. When in 1861 the war between the southern and northern states broke loose Keith volunteered to fight on the frontlines._

Lance scowled.

_Tonto_ , _sounds just like you to run off to war just like that...._

_His excellent tactical skills and brave heart saved many lives during battle. He was giving three medals of honor as a reminder of his achievements for their country. Returning home to Altea he was celebrated like a hero._ Underneath the text there was a photography attached. A picture of Keith, hands behind his back, shoulders squared and showing off his medals to the camera. Next to him an aged up Allura, with what seemed to be her father and Coran. _First picture ever taken in Altea, photography by Katherine "Katie" Holt.,_ it said underneath the black and white picture.

He was still staring, unable to move or think - anything but _'he is real'_ that is - when something dawned on him.

_1834 - 1898_

Yes he was real, but also _dead_.

Long gone.

Suddenly every ounce of excitement drained out of him.

_He's dead_ , had suddenly replaced the constant stream of ' _he is real_ ' and left him feeling sad and almost tired.

Stumbling a few steps backward he backed out of the red section and searched the room for Hunk and Shay almost hectically.   
They stood in the yellow section, backs turned towards Lance and hands entwined tightly.

"Guys...?", he called over to them, his voice feeling way too loud in the terribly quiet room.

Shay turned around first, slightly tugging at Hunks hand to bring him back to reality.   
The latter seemed almost startled when he first looked at Shay and than at Lance.

"I-", his voice cracked lightly, something in his guts stirring when his mind again reminded him that Keith indeed had been real but was now dead. "- could we... I mean I-"

Shay looked at him worriedly and frowned, Hunk beside her assuming a similar pose.   
Lance cleared his throat trying to swallow the knot that began to form there.

"I don't- uhm feel all that well could we maybe..."

Hunk only now seemed to realize wich section Lance came from and for the split of a second Lance could swear that he _knew_.

"Of course.", he said way too quickly. "I guess we've dragged you around enough already don't you think Shay?"

Shay frowned at her boyfriend a little but after a few beats of silence she seemed to get whatever Hunk was getting at.   
Lance however was clueless as always, but to be honest he didn't even mind as he couldn't really think about anything else than the painful sting in his chest.

"Come on, let's go get back to the castle shall we?"

* * *

Lance had to do something.

_Anything_ would be fine.

The ceiling.

He remembered the blank ceiling in his room. He couldn't stand that blank ceiling.

There should be something in his suitcase that he could put up there.

Did he pack the 'glow in the dark stars' he used to have in his room?

His thoughts were racing, racing away from his body, from the museum just away, away, _away_...

Maybe that's why he felt drawn to Altea.

Because _he_ used to live here.

It didn't make sense though. He had never seen anything like Altea in his dreams so how could Keith have been there?

He shook his head.

It didn't need to make any sense.   
Important was that Keith was dead and that he could stop hoping for any kind of contact with him for good now.

There would be no more reasons for him to cry in the middle of the night because let's be real here, in his last dream he had died, so if they were both dead, why would he still have those dreams?

Nodding to himself he continued to walk alongside Hunk and Shay.

He definitely needed to put up those stars...

* * *

"What do you think?", Lance asked as he turned towards Shay with a broad grin.

She tapped her chin thoughtfully, analyzing the boys work.   
"Hmmm.... you should put up another one right there.", she pointed at a spot near the wall that was still oddly blank.

Lance grabbed one of the remaining stars and nodded at Hunk to lift him up again.   
It was really useful to have a tall friend that was strong enough to carry you on his shoulders when you didn't have a ladder around.

Carefully he dabbed the star onto the ceiling.

"Better?", he called over his shoulder.

Shay gave it another look before finally nodding.

With a satisfied huff Lance let himself slip off Hunks shoulders, bouncing off the bed as he hit the mattress with full force.   
He then laid down, admiring his work.

"Now that's more like it..."

Hunk laughed and shook his head at his roommate. "You're weird you know that?"

Lance smirked at him, "Oh _I_ know."

Shay was about to say something herself but was rudely interrupted by Hunks phone.   
He frowned and fished it out of his pocket.

"Who was it?", Shay asked with a gentle smile, leaning onto her boyfriends shoulder.

Hunk chuckled as he pocketed his smartphone again. "You'll see, you'll see..."

Lance propped himself up onto his elbows. "What do you mean we'll s-"

"MOVE _PEASANTS_!", the door was kicked open violently and slammed against the wall. "ROYALTY. _HAS_. **_ARRIVED_**."

Lance blinked a few times at the small person that stood in the door with puffed out chest and glinting glasses.

Before he could say anything a big suitcase hit him and he was knocked backwards.

"Good catch new one.", they quipped as they flopped down on Hunks bed.

Hunk grinned and Shay did her best not to laugh.

Lance, who had sat up again in the meantime, looked between his friends and - wait who the hell were they exactly?

As already mentioned they were extremely small and skinny. They had a full head of sandy blonde hair slightly curled bangs falling onto their forehead. On their thin nose rested a pair of huge, round glasses that took up almost half their face and made their hazel eyes seem gigantic. Maybe it was a weird thing to think, and Lance felt a little bad, but, were they a boy or a girl...?   
He really didn't know.

"Uh who are you aga-"

"Lance right?", they asked with a smirk.

"Y-yes uh and you a-"

"Jeez are those _'glow in the dark stars'_?", they laughed.

Lance felt his face heat up and he crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively. "Would you stop interrupting me plea-"

They started laughing again shaking their head until their hair shook with it.   
"Hey, hey Hunk!", they called. "Can we keep this one? I like him!"

Hunk laughed, shaking his head.   
"Pidge it hasn't even been a minute and you're already pushing it again."

"Love you too man.", they grinned and finally turned to take a proper look at Lance. "So, wanna introduce me?"

Shay rolled her eyes and sat down next to them.   
"Nice to see you too Pidge."

They shot her a sly grin before turning back towards Lance eyeing him almost critically.

"Lance this is Pidge, Pidge I already told you about Lance.", Hunk said as he took a seat next to his fairly confused roommate.

"Uh nice to meet you...", Lance mumbled as he passed them their suitcase.

They grinned at him before turning to Hunk. "Showed him around already?"

Shay nodded. "Took him on a tour through town today. We visited the gallery and the museum -"

"Nice! What did you think about the green section? My ancestors were pretty dope right?", Pidge - again - interrupted.

Lance blinked a few times looking at Hunk for help.   
He hadn't even gotten to the green section, way too confused about the discovery he had made in the red one.

"Pidge is a descendant of Katherine Holt. She modernized Altea with the help of her brother Matthew.", Hunk explained and then looked at Pidge. "We had to leave because he didn't feel well..."

Pidge's thin lips formed a silent 'oh' as if suddenly remembering something really obvious. 

This was getting weirder by each passing moment.   
First Hunk and Shay who - don't get him wrong - were really nice, but strange at times, giving him weird looks or saying things that seemed a little off.

And now there was Pidge.

They seemed like the kind of person Lance would perfectly get along with but still he felt.... _odd_ talking to them.

"I'm fucking starving guys!", Pidge exclaimed suddenly. "Who's in for a burger at Corans?"

Hunk and Shay looked at each other for a few seconds apparently doing their silent conversation thingy again.

While they did so Pidge turned to Lance again.   
"What about you Starboy?", they asked as they pushed up their huge round glasses up the bridge of their nose. "You're welcome to join if you're feeling better."

Lance thought about it for a second.

He was tired again after all that stuff he did today and the lack of sleep he'd had because of the nightmare but he was also really hungry and did Pidge just say 'Corans'?  
Wasn't that how one of the founders of Altea was called? Maybe he was related to him, like Pidge and that woman, Katherine Holt, the one that took the photo of Keith.

So in the end he agreed because even if maybe it wasn't the best for him to do so, he desperately wanted to find out what was going on around him, everything seemed to be linked and he just had to find out how.

* * *

It turned out that Coran indeed was related to James Coran.

And really proud of it.

_And_ really liked to talk.

Means, Lance probably shouldn't have asked because when their burgers arrived he could have sworn his ears were bleeding from all the stories and facts about the diner, James Coran and Altea.   
It was worth it though because he found out that Coran, Pidge and Hunk all were descendants of people related to the origin of Altea.   
He then decided that - since he wouldn't have to write down dreams now anymore - he could write down everything he learned about this .... well whatever it was that was going on here.

But that was not everything.

He learned about the new people around him as well and he found that every kind of doubt had been cleared by a wave of affection.   
They were all very kind and just so ... well _adorkable_.

Pidge being a real genius at just 18 years, but constantly running on four hours of sleep and a dozen cups of coffee and being the self declared 'meme-King'.   
They were going to study computer science at Altea and had returned from their vacation today.

Hunk and Shay were both 18 too though Shay would be turning 19 in a month. Pidge had made fun of Hunk being the younger one in their relationship and while Shay had grinned almost devilishly Hunk had turned a deep shade of red.

Hunk would be studying the same as Pidge, since they both shared a passion for technic, while Shay was an art major through and through.

It was slowly starting to get late and Shay was leaning against Hunks side smiling contently as he laid an arm over her shoulders.

Lance found himself smiling too, though there was something bitter lingering in his mind.

He felt happy around them, as if there was no other place where he should be other than Corans diner, right in this booth next to Pidge.   
But at the same time there was something missing.

_Keith_ was missing.

He already knew how that felt.   
How often had he wished that Keith was real, how often had he wanted to talk to him when he needed to get something off his chest, or ask him about all the things he didn't understand about his dreams?

Right now he desperately wished he could introduce Keith to the new friends he had made and  _dios mío,_  how much he wanted to lean onto Keiths shoulder like Shay did with Hunk.

But he couldn't.

* * *

"And if I drown you in memes at 4 am in the morning I expect you to answer, got it star boy?", Pidge asked as they typed their number into Lance's phone.

"Got it.", he answered with a smirk playing around his lips.

He opened the door to the dorm room to get Pidges suitcase.

"Thanks", they said as Lance traded their suitcase for his phone, then sounding genuinely concerned all of a sudden, "You sure that you'll be okay on your own?"

Lance smiled softly.

Hunk had excused himself earlier because it was the weekly couple evening he had with Shay, so he was staying at her flat just outside the campus.

"You know, just because Hunk said you had trouble sleeping last night...", they added and stuffed their hands into their pockets.

"Thanks for your concern Pidge but I'll be fine.", he assured them, "I have a feeling that I won't be having problems anymore..."

 

After Pidge had left he flopped down onto his bed and picked up his notebook and a pencil.   
Tapping the latter against his chin, thinking about how he should start.

_Keith_ , he wrote onto the top of the page. And after a while he added, _Andrews_ , his last name.

_~ fought in civil war                                    ~ Picture - > KATHERINE HOLT _

_~ died 1898                                                ~ one of first inhabitants of Altea_

Nodding along Lance turned the page.

_Pidge Holt_ , he wrote on top of it, drawing a line and adding _Katherine Holt_. He wrote down Pidge's age and major and added _Brother=Matthew Holt_ and _lived same time as Keith_ , to Katherines side.

Hunks side just consisted of three notes at the time, his age, his major and the fact that he came from one of the original Altean families like Pidge and Coran.

When he got to Shays page his phone suddenly started buzzing.

Once, twice, three, fou- .... okay about ten times.

Huffing a laugh he saw his screen lighting up, it was informing him that 'ROYALTY' had sent him at least ten pictures.   
Shaking his head he picked up his phone and scrolled through the messages.

Like Pidge had predicted they were memes.

Lots of memes.

0:43pm ROYALTY: Go on you promised you'd answer. 

0:43pm _well thanks for the entertainment_

0:44pm ROYALTY: Hm, interesting. Usually they say, 'fuck you I was sleeping Pidge', but hey I'm not complaining.   
0:44pm ROYALTY: That reminds me   
0:44pm ROYALTY: Why r u not sleeping?

Lance grinned faintly. "Yeah, why am I not sleeping..."

He decided to call it quit for today and closed the notebook.

0:45pm _Because I'm slowly turning into a lunatic_ , he replied as he laid down.

0:45pm ROYALTY: R u calling me crazy star boy?

0:46pm _no srly I'm actually pretty tired_

0:46pm ROYALTY: You're weak  
0:46pm ROYALTY: It's not even 1am Lance rolled his eyes.

0:47pm _Didn't get much sleep lately_   
0:47pm _Finally gonna get some_   _sleeeeeeep_

0:48pm ROYALTY: W E A K

Lance laughed and shook his head as he typed one last 'night Pidge' into his phone.

He closed his eyes.

_No more dreams,_ he thought.

But was that really a good thing? Just thinking about never seeing Keith again made him feel uneasy.

He quickly shook the feeling off, turning underneath the covers until he found a comfortable position.

No more dreams....

* * *

_He ran and ran and ran._

_Panting but still laughing, a pleasant heat burning in his cheeks._

_He heard him catch up.  
Normally he'd be running faster, not wanting to give his chaser the satisfaction of catching him._

_No one caught him, he was faster than anyone else._ _But -_

_"_ _Got you!", he yelled and Lance felt a weight on his back throwing him to the ground._

_The next thing he knew, he was being turned onto his back, strong hands pressing him to the ground.  
He laughed through the heavy breaths he was taking struggling against the firm hold he had on him. _

_Straddling him Keith grinned broadly, his violet eyes shining in the bright light of the sun._

_"You really thought you'd get away that easily?"_


	4. When I need you the most

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where did he go?   
> Why wasn't he there anymore?  
> Lance rolled over onto his stomach, his hands roaming everywhere looking for the warmth that should be there but wasn't.  
> Step by step his mind caught up to his body, realising that he was awake and Keith had been yet again just a dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay sorry that this is so late but I'm currently a little stressed because there's a lot going on here at the moment and tbh I was kind of dreading this chapter because it's the first time for me writing something smut like.   
> Please don't judge me, I know it's poorly written and all but it's really my first time writing something like this and seriously I almost burnt my laptop right there so yeah.   
> Well anyways, I hope this chapter is okay anyways, it's kind of a filler leading up to the next few ones. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and the kudos and comments it really means a lot to me that anyone even bothers to read the nonsense I write.   
> Tschau mit V,   
> \- German potato of doom

_"You really thought you'd get away that easily?", Keith panted atop of him._

_Lance felt himself laugh while trying to get out from beneath Keith but he grabbed his wrists and pinned them over his own head, making him completely immobile._   
_For a few moments there was silence, the only noise consisting of their rapid breaths as Keiths violet eyes raked over him, observing his every move._

_They were his most noticeable feature, clearly marking him as something special, something inhuman.  
There won't ever be a day when he wont get lost in their endless depths._

_"I won", Keith whispered into the silence between them._

_They had long stopped laughing._

_Lance had almost forgotten that they had been training before and he had let Keith catch him, he found it strangely hard to concentrate when Keith was so close. Close enough that he could feel his still slightly uneven breath brush against his cheeks._

_"..."_

_Keith smirked slightly. "Is that so? I think you were just not good enough to compete against me so I won.", the raven haired man replied smugly._

_His eyes narrowed at Keith as he raised an eyebrow. "..."_

_"_ _Touché", Keith grinned._

_Throughout another beat of silence Lance became suddenly very aware of the fact that Keith was - still - straddling him._   
_He couldn't stop his mind from drifting off into by no means appropriate directions. But after what had happened a few days back he couldn't help himself but to do so. His imagination had been running wild for days and now it was so close.  
He was so close... _

_He could see in Keiths face that the same things were running through his mind aswell at the moment._

_"Lance...", he breathed into the silence surrounding them. "I-... we - we should probably talk."_

_With a groan Lance's head fell back and he closed his eyes._

_He should have known._

_He so should have known._

_Keith usually wasn't a man of big words. Throughout the two years they had spent together Lance had learned that Keith was rather the quiet type of person, but when he did talk, there was a 40 percent chance that Lance wanted him to shut up again._

_This was no different. To be exact this was probably the best example so far._

_"..."_

_Keith sighed, Lance knew how hard he was restraining himself. What could possibly be that important?_   
_Couldn't he see how much he wanted - no worse, needed this? Shouldn't Keith be the one to take action instead of talking? Wasn't talking too much Lance's part?_

_"Please just- ... I need to get this straight before...", Keith swallowed thickly and bit his lip nervously. "Lance what do you feel for me?"_

_He felt his eyes go wide and his cheeks heat up at Keiths question and for the first time since Keith had pinned him down Lance really tried to get out of the other males hold._

_"..."_

_"No it's not! At least not to me Lance!", Keith protested. "You know that I'm not good at reading people or- or emotions in general, so please, you have to talk to me. The kiss a few days ago nearly killed me and I haven't been able to think of anything else ever since and - Jesus I just really want to do it again but I don't know if it's okay because I never know what you're thinking and I just-"_

_Lance decided then, that Keith had rambled on long enough now._

_He gripped Keiths wrists and used all the strength he could gather to flip them over so that Lance was now the one straddling him and not the other way around._

_Keith stared at him, pupils dilating until only a sliver of their purple color was to be seen._

_Lance took a deep breath._

_One... two..._

_"..."_

_They kissed._

_All this pent up tension finally melting into pure passion._   
_It was nothing like the first time at the lake when Keith had suddenly kissed him and Lance hadn't been prepared in the slightest, too surprised to do anything._   
_Now there was nothing stopping him as he claimed Keiths soft pink lips with his and ground his hips down onto his._

_Lance swallowed the gasp that fell out of Keiths mouth and pressed even closer while the other helplessly wrapped his arms around him, his slender fingers digging into the short curls of Lances hair._   
_Releasing Keiths lips - leaving them swollen and deliciously red - he kissed his way down Keiths chin, up his cheekbone, along his neck and all the way to his collarbone that was barely even concealed by the dark red fabric of his tunic._

_The noises Keith made were almost enough to make him lose it right then and there._

_In favor of hearing more of those delicious little sounds Lance sucked down on Keiths skin a little harder._

_"Lance...", Keith said, his voice ragged and breathy as his grasp on him tightened, the sound of it cursing through him like a lightning bolt._

_His brain wasn't fast enough anymore, couldn't even process the things happening right now._

_Keith was there, with him, beneath him, was_ his _. Even_   _if it was_ _just for the moment._

_They stayed like that for what felt like a blissful eternity. Kissing, licking, sucking whatever patch of skin they could reach, grinding their hips together in frantic motions._

_He could feel himself tense up, his breathing becoming shorter with each movement and he could tell that Keith was close too._

_Keiths eyes were closed, a thin layer of sweat forming on his skin so that it almost looked like he was sparkling. He looked so breathtakingly beautiful, with his pale sparkly skin, and his raven hair and pink lips and -_

_"Lance-" Keith moaned and his back arched off the ground, pressing their chests flush together._

_With a strangled cry Lance rocked up against Keith one last time before his vision turned white and his muscles gave out._

_His arms were on either side of Keiths head, his forehead beaded against his shoulder, panting into the red fabric that smelled just like Keith._

_Thunderstorms and raspberries._

* * *

_Where did he go?_

_Why wasn't he there anymore?_

Lance rolled over onto his stomach, his hands roaming everywhere looking for the warmth that should be there but wasn't.

Step by step his mind caught up to his body, realizing that he was awake and Keith had been yet again just a dream.   
A quiet and definitely needy sounding sob left him as he pressed his face into the pillow. 

None of his dreams had ever been so.... god he didn't even know what to say.

He had never had dreams like that. It's not like he never thought of it, in fact he'd often fantasized about Keith but it had never carried on into those dreams of his. 

Until _now_ that is, apparently. 

But he never thought it would hurt. 

Physical, mental, and emotional pain. His heart was beating too fast and clenching too hard at the same time, his brain couldn't for the love of god decide where the hell he was and if what had happened was real or not and his emotions ran wild, he was missing Keith to the extend that it added up to the physical pain list. 

He was sticky with sweat and ... other things. 

He suddenly felt hot searing anger making it's way through the thick fog inside his mind. He hated this. He hated dreaming of something he wanted to have but never, never being able to get it, no matter what he did. He was angry at Keith, because he was there, in his dreams, in this city- everywhere. He was taunting him, by having lived here and by being dead now. He was just far enough out of reach, close but still not there. He was angry at himself for just wanting Keith even more and more. 

Even though it hurt, even though it robbed every second of sleep he got these days, even though he was on the verge of going mad. 

* * *

 It had taken a while for him to get up.

He'd gotten ready just in time before Hunk came back from Shays. He probably still looked like shit though because the first thing the other man did after he entered was ask if he was okay.

"Just peachy", Lance assured halfheartedly. 

Hunk raised an eyebrow at him as he sat down on his desk chair. "Why do I not believe you?" and than after a while he added, "Bad dream again?"

Lance sighed and put his head into his hands. He didn't know what to tell Hunk so he just kept quiet.   
Hunk however didn't seem to take the hint.

"Maybe you should talk about those dreams with someone? I mean it can't be healthy if you just keep on ignoring it , maybe they mean something, you know?" 

"Yeah they mean that I'm a total nut job...", Lance muttered.

"What was that?"

"Uh nothing... nothing.", Lance sighed. 

To be honest he had never really thought about talking about the dreams, like really talking with people that really knew something about it. It always felt way too private for him to share it with anyone.   
It still didn't make sense to him why he told Hunk - someone he barely even knew - but couldn't seem to regret it either.  
Somehow though, talking about it had made him feel a little better then, so maybe he should trust Hunk and talk to someone, a professional maybe.

"You know what, you should go and talk to Ally about it.", Hunk said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. "She's majoring in Psychology and will be graduating this year."

Lance looked up at his friend and frowned a little. "Uhm okay you sure she's okay with tha-"

"She'll be drinking something with us tonight, I wanted to ask you to come anyways so now you'll have a reason to come right? You'll love her she's really great and [...]"

Lance shook his head, his face breaking into a grin as he listened to Hunks endless rambling. 

_It's a good idea_ , Lance told himself. _It will help, for sure..._

* * *

"STARBOY!!!", Pidge yelled from a booth in the back of the small bar. "Come on get over here, we're waiting!"

Lance groaned and slumped forward a little. Hunk next to him chuckled and patted his shoulder. 

"They'll never let me live the one with the stars down hm?"

"Nope."

They made their way to the corner their friends were seated in and Lance realized they really were the last ones.

On either sides of Pidge sat Shay and another girl he didn't know yet - probably Ally. 

The first thing he noticed about her was that she looked a lot like Allura Altea. She had the same big eyes with their bright blue color, the same thin nose and her skin looked just as bronze as hers. The only thing that distinguished Ally from the other, that one being her vibrant white hair.   
She grinned at him, exposing two rows of perfect white teeth. 

"You must be Lance.", she had a really nice voice - Lance liked her already - "The one with the glowing stars?"

Lance laughed and sat down next to Shay, he felt it might be safer to sit with someone he already knew. 

"That's the one. And you're Ally then."

She nodded and took another sip of her pink cocktail. "Nice to meet you."

"Same here", he replied and ordered something when a waitress walked past them. 

Soon they were all talking animatedly about the semester that was about to start, about how tired of this shit they were already - that one was mostly Pidge whining - and Ally warned them about some of the rather strict professors.   
Lance really had to say that he liked her. She was funny, seemed to be kind and understanding - at least from what he'd gathered so far - and smart enough to keep up with Pidges' witty comments. 

"So uh, Hunk said that you... you're majoring in psychology...?"

She nodded once more, the white locks framing her face bouncing up and down. "Yup, what about it?"

He cleared his throat, checking if the others were listening too - they weren't Pidge kept on trying to get a picture of Hunk because she thought his face was "meme worthy" so they were both busy.

"I have those.... uhm well I have trouble sleeping.", he explained sheepishly. "It's getting worse and uh Hunk thinks I should talk to someone about it because it might mean something..."  
She nodded along to show him he was listening.

"So he thought it might be a good idea if you let me think about it?", she concluded.

"Well, yeah."

Ally giggled, a pretty sound. If he hadn't been so smitten for Keith already he might have tried to make a move on her, because really she was just as great as Hunk had told him she would be but... 

_I will find you..._

Keiths face flashed behind his eyes again and he shook his head. 

Allura cocked her head to the side. "You okay there?"

"Yeah, m' fine...", he muttered. "So, would it be okay to uh, listen to me rant about stupid things for a while?"

She smiled brightly. "Yeah sure why not? Can't be that bad huh?"

Lance smiled weakly. 

_Yeah.... can't be that bad._

* * *

He didn't dream that night. 

Good for Hunk, because he was able to sleep that night without having a talking Lance next to him, but Lance however felt almost as bad as the day before.   
Turned out that not seeing Keith at all was almost as bad as seeing him but having to let him go again. 

Ally had told him to meet up with her at her room in the afternoon so he had the whole morning to spare.

He knew he was being stupid and irrational but he really needed to see Keith. 

So that's how he ended up in front of the museum. 

All alone, the hood of his jacket pulled into his forehead and his hands stuffed into his pockets. 

How the hell did he end up like that?  
Missing a dead person so much it physically pained him? Seeking out whatever came close to 'contact' with him? 

It was weird, it hurt him - aaaand he was already inside the museum. 

_Great._

The picture was well painted, it really looked like him, but it was nothing compared to the dreams. Neither were real but the dreams felt so much more tangible.   
Maybe because he could hear his voice, or maybe because he could almost feel his touch. 

Nevertheless, the picture was still him, still evidence that he had been here. 

_"Tonto"_ , Lance muttered. "Where are you when I need you the most?"


	5. Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was he standing?
> 
> When had he gotten up?
> 
> He didn't recall and it didn't matter. Something inside him had snapped just now. The small glass chest that had been keeping the worst of him at bay had broken, and man if he'd been messed up before he was having a breakdown now.  
> Carding his hand through his already messed up brown hair he started pacing around the room.
> 
> "I think I'm going insane."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT DID I EVER DO WRONG?  
> I've been trying to upload this chapter for a DAY now. Every time I got close to finishing the editing the side crashed and I had to do everything again.   
> So hopefully this is the last time I have to rewrite this note.
> 
> I don't know when the next chapter will come because I'm going on vacation and you know, who would want to go somewhere with a decent internet connection right?  
> *sigh* So yeah, it might take a few weeks.... 
> 
> In the meantime,   
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you all SO much for the kudos and comments!
> 
> Then tschau mit V - GPoD ;)

Allys room was a bit nicer than the others.

She didn't have to share it either. 

When Lance asked her about it she just smiled and said that she would explain it later and that they should concentrate on his problems first. 

_Right._

Ally had told him to just sit down wherever he wanted and get comfortable. Since she wasn't really a professional she said they would just talk a little without being all too serious and she would later tell him what she thought about it. 

He was okay with that.   
He was good at talking. 

"So," Ally said with a calm smile. Lance felt a little more relaxed now, though he had no actual idea why. He just felt more content... somehow. "Why do you have 'trouble' sleeping?"

"It's not really trouble as much as weird dreams.", Lance admitted, surprised as to how easy the words rolled off his tongue.   
Ally nodded, giving him another warm smile. "Tell me about them."

Though she had said that she wasn't really a professional yet, Lance felt like she could become a real good therapist later.   
It was almost embarrassing how easily she got him to talk.

"I've had them as long as I can remember.", Lance started to explain, fidgeting a little in his seat. "I... uhm well I..."

Ally smiled once more and motioned him to calm down. "Take your time. It's totally okay if you're a little reluctant."

Lance nodded laughed a little. "It's just that it's really silly and I don't want you to think I'm weird."  
Ally let out an amused snort. "Lance don't worry, when I was little I used to dream about singing Marshmallows that got married to a blue unicorn with the face of my father. I wont think of you any different no matter what you're about to tell me."

 

_You sure about that?_

Lance was still a little skeptical, but moved on anyways.

"Okay so I never hear what I'm saying in those scenarios, but I am aware that I'm talking. You know?", he explained.   
Ally nodded to show him she was following. 

"And uh it's all kind of - well it feels just like it's real, like it's really happening and when I was little it used to be a lot of fun, but of lately it became... weird."

"Okay, could you tell me about your earlier dreams? Only if you're comfortable with it though."

Lance nodded, more to himself then to Ally already contemplating what to tell her and with what to start. 

"Okay, so I lived in the jungle.", he said slowly because he felt that this was the safest way to go.   
He remembered his childhood dreams just as clearly as the ones from just days ago. They were still colorful, vivid in his mind even though it was long before he started to write them down - 

"So you're writing them down?", Ally asked and tapped her chin. "That's good."

Lance blinked at her bewilderedly. Did he - ? 

"I just said all of that out loud didn't I?", he sighed. "Jesus, I think I really am going crazy."

"No, no it's okay, really.", Ally assured putting her hands up to show him that she really was fine with it. "Just keep on doing that, think about it and just ignore that I'm here."  
Lance sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. 

"Yeah I'm writing it down but it's not been really long since I started.", he said to answer her question, but went back to describing his earlier dreams again.   
He told her all about the jungle, the small village and his dream family. He tried not to go into detail that much but it was difficult but with all the things that came to mind that he wanted to explain. 

But then there was this 'in my dreams I'm kind of a witch' thing he had to get over with.

"And you know, in those dreams I have ... there are those - well let's say I have those... ' _magical_ ' powers in my dreams.", he said cautiously and when Ally didn't do anything to indicate she thought he was nuts he continued. "It's hard to explain, but my whole dream-family had them and my dream-friend too. We always trained together in the woods. They came in different colors, depending on the person. Mine is- uh was blue."

Ally suddenly looked up from the small notebook she had gotten herself a few minutes into his sheer endless rant.   
Lance frowned at the slight twinkle in her blue eyes, as if he had just said the one thing she wasn't expecting him to say. 

"Did I- did I say something wrong?" 

She quickly caught herself again and shook her head the calm smile returning to her face in an instant. "No, no I was just- well, surprised. Please go on."  
"Well that was mostly everything you need to know about the earlier phase.", he admitted with a shrug. 

Ally nodded and wrote something else down in the notebook.   
"You said that they became 'weird'. What changed? Is that why you're writing them down now?"

_There we go..._

It had been way too easy up until now. 

Because the other stuff was casual. It was like the small talk things amongst his dream life, the things you told people at first dates. Where you life, a few things about you and your family, stuff like that. 

But _Keith_? No. Keith was his. 

What they had - no, what he wished there was, was his alone. He didn't _want_ to tell anyone, he wanted to keep it and protect it.   
Keith and this weird, fucked up relationship they somehow had. 

Ally seemed to notice. 

"Okay, let's start easy. You can relax.", she said, her voice taking on a softer, almost cautious note. Lance hadn't even realized that he'd tensed up. "Since when are you writing your dreams down?"  
Lance took a deep breath, trying to get his shit together and relax.   
"Uh I started a few weeks after my 16th birthday. So about two years."

Ally nodded and wrote it down on her notebook. 

Lance didn't like it. 

He started fidgeting in his seat, his leg starting to bounce.  
Up, down, up, down, a nervous habit of his. 

"Lance.", Allys voice was a tick louder. Trying to get his attention. "Can you tell me what changed?"  
He stared at her and she stared right back at him, her bright blue eyes patient but still demanding, almost like a mother asking her son to tidy his room. 

"I don't think I can.", Lance admitted quietly.

She leaned back in her seat and folded her hands together in her lap. "Then we should probably stop here. I wont force you to tell me anything you're uncomfortable with."

"It's not like that, I'm not ... 'uncomfortable' with it...", Lance muttered. "It's just that- I have never told anyone before and I- it just feels wrong to tell you... as if I'm betraying him. _Somehow_." 

And just like that his words were flowing out again. He didn't know how Ally did it but all of a sudden he found himself telling her everything. All those things he had never told anyone before but it suddenly felt really easy. 

Maybe it was the relief of just letting go for once and telling someone. Someone he knew would listen but never judge him - or tell anyone else.   
"... So that's how I first met him and after that- I don't know, my dreams just seemed much more important.", he said and blinked a few times, realization just now sinking in completely. "Wow I really told you. I never thought it would be that easy."

Ally chuckled lightly. "See? It's good to talk about things that are on your mind!"

Lance nodded and a smile spread on his face. It did feel good. 

"So much about the first encounter. ", Ally looked down at the notebook in her lap. "How did things continue with Keith?"

He was about to continue, he had leaned a little more forward so that his arms were resting on his thighs, when he noticed something.   
She had said _'with Keith'_ just now. But he had never told her Keiths name.   
He had always said 'him' instead of using his name. 

"Ally.... how did you - I didn't tell you his name"  
Allys head shot up from the slightly slouched position she had been in while writing something down. 

"Huh?"

Lance frowned at her reaction. "You said 'Keith'. I didn't tell you that his name was Keith."

Her permanent smile almost faltered there for a second. "Oh? Did I ... did I really say that?"  
He nodded, his eyes narrowing into thin slits watching her every move."Yeah you did."

"I- I really don't know what you mean Lance....", she was obviously getting nervous now while he was growing tired of it. All of it. 

"Ally how did you know his name?", he asked his voice growing more impatient and louder. 

"I can explain it but please calm down first. I'll tell you if you just sit down and listen."

Was he standing?

When had he gotten up?

He didn't recall and it didn't matter. Something inside him had snapped just now. The small glass chest that had been keeping the worst of him at bay had broken, and man if he'd been messed up _before_ he was having a breakdown now.

Carding his hand through his already messed up brown hair he started pacing around the room.   
"What is it with this place?", he sighed. "I think I'm going insane."

Ally was standing now too, her expression heavy with worry. "Lance please -"

"No!", he snapped. "I can't calm down okay? None of this feels - none of this is normal! My dreams, this- this city, you a-and Hunk and Pidge..."

His throat felt tight.   
He knew he was having a panic attack. He's had some before. 

"Lance you're panicking, you should-"

But he cut her off again. He wouldn't listen to a single word until he'd gotten to say everything he wanted to say.   
"Something is not right here.", he insisted, short breaths rattling through his lungs in a frantic rhythm. "There's s-something you - a-all of you, you know something! I-It's about m-me, my dreams. I just know it. Hunk said something - the night when- when I was burning -"

Allys eyes widened almost comically at that. 

"- He said 'not a-again'.", he was nearly sobbing by now. "He was _there_. I- I don't know how, but he - he just _knows_! And Shay and Pidge they... they are so nice and I like them but they - they scare me god damn it!"  
Now he was definitely sobbing, and for maybe the hundredth time he said. "Something is not right!"

Ally looked terrified at his sudden outburst but also heartbroken because, yes, in a way it was her fault. Her fault that the jar broke and everything spilled. 

But Lance didn't care.   
Not at all, not _now_. He just kept on talking, because that's all he could do right now. He just needed to get it all out. 

"And Keith. Keith, Keith, Keith, _Keith_.", he briefly closed his eyes, listening how his voice formed this one name that had haunted his ass for years. It felt kind of nice to actually _say_ it for once. "He's everywhere. I can't stop thinking about him. I close my eyes and I see him and - and .... _dios_ I love him so much but I'll never get to be with him! Never! And I'm seriously starting to go crazy and - and-"

 

_Silence_

  
Sweet silence and a bright white glow, tucking him into a soft embrace. 

 

* * *

  
_"He's not stupid you know?"_

_"I... I know..."_

_"Then why are you still trying to keep the truth from him? Sooner or later he's going to find out anyways, but the longer it takes the more he suffers. He told me everything, he is an emotional wreck. He thinks he is crazy because he sees the past in his dreams. He thinks he is making things up. You scare him! He's just so afraid god damn it!"_

_"Allura... please. Try to understand. If we told him.... for him all of this is none sense. Fairytale material. If we told him he would- ... I just can't lose him again."_

_"I know that you're just trying to protect him, but you're failing horribly. It's no use. RE's tend to break easily if they are not recovered fast enough and even though Lance seems to be strong there's only so much he can take. And there's still the threat of his powers kicking in. You know that RE's have to be at least fully recovered to really comprehend what's happening."_

_"I know and I promise that we'll take care of it just- .... I promised that we would wait for him."_

_"We can't-"_

_"Shiro said it'll only take them one more week. As soon as they arrive I will tell him, then we can put him into a pod and after that Pidge will brief him. I promise it'll be fine."_

_"Okay I'll erase the incident... but just this once Garrett. But as soon as I see that Lance could crack again I will have no choice but to interfere. I fear that he could unintentionally hurt someone."_

_"Thank you_ Allura."

 

* * *

  
Nothing really changed after the first session he'd had with Ally- except for this small content feeling in the back of his mind telling him that it was nice to talk to Ally.  
Maybe he'd do another session sometime. But probably not. 

Aside from that it was still the same. He still had dreams, he still felt shitty at times and he still went to the museum to stare at Keiths portrait like the loser he was.   
So yeah, things were not going as planned and he was getting really frustrated because he wasn't getting closer to unraveling Alteas secrets either. It sucked. 

But the semester had officially started and he had more important things to think of. And that was okay. College would be hard, it already was a piece of work, but it kept him grounded, and with each day his problems faded into the background more and more.   
Now, after the first week had passed by with long days and even longer nights, he was sitting on his bed laughing as the blue shell he'd just thrown hit Hunks kart. 

"Take that! That's for throwing that damn banana peel at me earlier _dickhead_.", he exclaimed as he passed the other mans avatar and took the lead. 

"Oh come _on_ Lance!", Hunk groaned as he struggled to not fall to the last place. 

Hunk really sucked at Mario Kart. 

Lance laughed again as he passed the finish line in first place and threw his hands up in victory. 

"YESSS! EIGHTH TIME IN A ROW! SUCK ON THAT ONE HUNK!"

The other just rolled his eyes. "You're playing dirty that's all."

"I'm not playing _dirty_ , I'm just using what the game gives me."

"Buddy we both know that no gentleman uses a _blue shell_ , that's the international number one douchebag move, it destroys families, friendships and relationships."

Lance huffed a laugh as he fell onto his back. "Now you're just being dramatic."

"I'm not kidding Shay nearly murdered me that one time."

"But that's Shay. She is the embodiment of the cinnamon roll theory. Looks like a cinnamon roll but could kill you."  
Hunk chuckled. "Don't ever let her hear that."

"Nah it's cool she likes me.", Lance said with a big smirk painted all over his face.   
There was a beat of silence in wich there was solely the Mario Kart theme music to be heard. 

"So...", Hunk said then when it was on the brink of becoming awkward. "Pidges brother came back from Europe today. We're going out tonight to celebrate. You in?"

Lance looked over at the other man and smiled. 

Going out sounded really good right now, anything to distract him these days. And besides, hanging out with the others was really fun. 

"Count me in."

 

* * *

  
They were at the small bar again, in the back booth waiting for 'Matt' to arrive.   
Pidge was even twitchier than normal, wich was totally okay because they hadn't seen their brother in forever. 

At least that's what they'd told him. 

Hunk, Shay and Ally were all talking animatedly while Lance and Pidge just sat there watching the door like two god damn hawks. 

He was curious okay? 

Pidge suddenly piped up when the door swung open yet again and someone entered. He was quite tall and had really short, dark hair but with a small section at the front that was bleached a white that looked a lot like Ally's. He looked like that kind of guy you wouldn't want to mess with because not only did he wear solely black, no , that guy had muscles. But there was a bright, almost goofy smile on his face that didn't match his physique at all and that made him seem oddly likeable.

Plus he was coming _right_ towards them. 

Pidge jumped off there seat in an instant, hurrying towards the stranger with her arms spread wide. 

The taller man laughed and opened his arms as well, closing them around Pidge as soon as they hit him with full force. 

Was _that_ her brother?

He looked nothing like Pidge but maybe....

"It's been so fucking long Shiro!", they explained as they clung onto him as if their life depended on it. "Where the hell did you hide Matt though?"

The other man, Shiro apparently, laughed. "Well nice to see you too little one. It's a long story, mind if I sit down first?"

They immediately let go of him just to grab his hand and pull him towards the others hurriedly. 

"Guys it's just Shiro", they said as they flopped down on their seat again. 

"Ouch!", Shiro exclaimed and put a hand on his heart while feigning hurt. 

Ally was the first to get up and hug him, followed by Shay and then Hunk who still managed to make Shiro look small. It was kind of funny to watch as he engaged the other man in one of those crushing, but awesome bear hugs of his.   
"And you must be Lance!", Shiro said as he spotted him after being released from Hunks grip. 

If he only got a dollar for every time he heard that sentence nowadays. 

"Yeah, the one and only."

"Nice to meet you, it's Shiro."

The other man gave him a friendly smile before settling in the booth next to Ally. 

"So where's my brother?", Pidge inquired impatiently. 

Shiro sighed. "Well the thing is despite what you might think Pidgey, those meetings actually last up to months and when you called it was kinda hard to leave. You know - ", he turned to Hunk. "Marmora made trouble again.", to wich Hunk nodded obviously understanding what - to Lance - just sounded like gibberish. "So Matt - the literally perfect boyfriend he is, said that he would stay behind for the rest of the meeting so that I could go."

Pidge groaned. "He's not _perfect_ he's a dumbass. He promised he'd come!"

Shiro gave them an almost stern look. "Pidge you _know_ why."

They immediately quit their whining. "Yeah sorry... where... where is he though. If Matt's not here I thought at least -"

"He said he didn't feel well.", Shiro said quickly, cutting Pidge off mid sentence and throwing a quick look at Lance before continuing. "The flight, you know?"

Well that certainly sounded ... _odd_.   
Who the hell were they talking about? 

He frowned but didn't say anything about it because it seemed kind of inappropriate.   
While the others dived right back into conversation Shiro went to order at the bar. When he came back with a beer in his right hand Lance suddenly saw something he hadn't noticed before.   
Shiros right hand was in fact not _quite_ a hand.   
It shimmered like metal in the low lights of the bar and he could make out a soft purple glow from beneath the sleave of his shirt right where his wrist would be.  
He must have been really obvious because when Shiro sat down again across from him he instantly followed Lance's gaze to his hand - wich he pulled back to put it under the table as soon as he noticed Lances staring. 

He looked more nervous than ashamed - which in this situation would have probably the more common reaction - and tipped his beer with his left hand instead.

"I- uh I'm sorry for staring that was not okay.", Lance said feeling heat rise to his cheeks. It really was not appropriate even though he had a weird feeling about this - _again._

He was straight on turning into some kind of conspiracy theorist right here. There was literally nothing he was not suspicious about this days. 

"It's okay, really. Just forgot about it there for a sec..."

Yet another weird statement. Lance was already frowning again, but Shiro didn't leave any room for questions - well at least not from Lance's side.

"So Lance, uh Hunk said you're new in Altea?"

"Uh yeah", Lance said dumbly a little taken aback by the sudden turn their conversation had taken. "I'm from florida."

"Florida.", Shiro repeats in a way some might say 'I should have known'. 

"Yeah, Florida...", Lance nodded as if that could get any more awkward.

"So how do you like it here so far?"

"Well uh... there certainly are a lot of nice people here so.",  Lance smiled and looked  over at Pidge, Hunk, Shay and Ally.  

Shiro did so too and smiled as well. 

"So you and Pidge's brother?", Lance asked, though he had so much more important questions to ask. 

Shiro actually laughed a little at that. "Well, yes. He's the good sibling I suppose."

"HEY!", Pidge protested.

"Calm down Pidgey, you know I love you but I love your brother a little more.", Shiro said with probably the most Dad smile Lance had ever seen. "Besides, Matt is like ten times less loud."

Lance couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Well lucky you."

Shiro grinned. "Yeah, very lucky."

The other man seemed _so_ in love. Lance felt his stomach twist lightly.   
It was not like Lance didn't allow people to be happy, no really he was happy for Shiro that he seemed to be content with his life and relationship, but it still made him feel sad. 

He was not happy because he was still trapped in that 'not quite' relationship with Keith. And he simply _couldn't_ be happy without Keith. Because that's how far this had gone and as much as he loved Keith, lately all it did was hurt him.

Everything he had tried to ignore that week resurfaced suddenly. 

"I... don't feel all that well, excuse me for a sec."

 

* * *

  
Cold water in his face and a look into the mirror told him just how done he really looked. 

He sighed and rubbed both his hands over his face. 

He was tired, really _really_ tired. 

Only that he didn't know whether to anticipate sleep or not. He knew dreams were awaiting him, they had become way more frequent.   
The thing was, he really wanted to sleep because he was a) tired as shit and b) needed to see Keith, the lifeless portrait in the museum was only a weak replacement. But dreaming of Keith always meant waking up and he simply didn't want that. 

He repeated the procedure with the water. 

But as he turned towards the mirror again Keith was staring at him in the reflection. 

He was smiling, his lips quirking ever so slightly and his amethyst like eyes twinkling like the gems they resembled. 

With trembling fingers Lance reached out to the mirror, trying to catch Keith, trying to chase the sudden closeness. But as soon as his fingers touched the cold glass of the mirror the only thing looking at him were his own wide eyes.

He really needed that sleep.

 

* * *

  
The restrooms were a little cut off the main room. Their booth was probably the closest, it was actually set right at the corner that secluded the rooms from the bar. 

"I'm not in for more of that crap.", it was Ally. She sounded angry.

He shouldn't stand there and just listen. He was not that kind of person.   
But...

"Allura ... please calm down."

_Allura_... he should have known. She looked so _much_ like those paintings. 

What the _hell_ was going on here?!

"No I wont!", Allura insisted. "You said you needed a week. That week is over and if you're not doing anything I will okay?"

Pidge sighed, sounding oddly serious for once. It made Lance feel really uneasy.   
"But we can't just do this without _him_."

"It's certainly _not_ my fault that he is not here.", Ally deadpanned. "Blame Shiro."

"Well it's not _my_ fault either.", Shiro tried to defend himself. "You know how he get's sometimes. And to be honest, I understand him. I certainly wouldn't be able to see Matt if ... ", he obviously didn't need to finish the sentence for the others to understand.

"Shiro is right.", Shay admitted quietly. 

"But you've got to admit that this is madness. This can become very dangerous very quickly. We need to secure the RE and do our _job_. If it's personal or not doesn't matter in this case." 

"Allura you have to understand.", Hunk pleaded. "I _know_ what you mean and I _know_ that this is serious, but please give us a little more time to get _him_."

Lance decided that this was really enough. He felt nauseous to the point where he really wanted to throw up. He _needed_ to go.

This was bad, really bad. 

He knew now that something weird was going on here for real and Lance suddenly didn't want to find out about it anymore. 

He turned the corner and the whole table went silent all of a sudden. 

He looked up ready to tell them that he would be leaving and that they should probably stay off of him for a while but then Pidge greeted him with _that_ grin. 

Their hazel eyes blinking brightly and the grin spreading across their face providing more light than the shitty lamps.   
They looked more than just adorable and all of Lances doubts just - why would he ever suspect them. 

What was he even doing? 

He was suspecting the people that had taken him in just like that and were literally going out of their way to make him feel as welcome as possible. 

There were probably some good explanations to what he'd heard just now. The problem was he didn't even know if he wanted to hear them or not. 

He was extremely sleep deprived and he tended to see things that were not there. _So_... 

He smiled back at Pidge, weakly that is. 

"So, it's actually time for my midnight snack, you in Starboy?", Pidge asked with that toothy grin of theirs. 

"Pidge get's like really hungry as soon as the clock strikes midnight. You know, kind of like Cinderella but with food.", Hunk explained.

"Thankfully Coran took to waiting at the diner until we come.", Ally - _Allura_? - commented with a chuckle. "My father certainly married the right guy."

"Yeah thank god for Coran.", Pidge said and clasped their hands together as if praying.

"But I always thought you were not supposed to feed those things after midnight?", Lance said, joking ... as always. 

Pidge dropped their hands and blinked at him a few times. 

"Wow you're dead to me now."

Hunk laughed but Pidge quickly shushed him. 

"Hunk don't laugh Lance just _died_. I think we should all go mourn at Corans with a nice burger and a coke."

And with that they got up and walked right past Lance without sparing him a second look, just repeating the word _dead_ again. 

The others shook their heads either laughing like Hunk or smiling and rolling their eyes like Shiro and Ally. They got up too.

"So you in or not?", Hunk asked with one of those kind smiles. "You know, they might forget that you're 'dead' if you pay for their burger."  
Despite the mood being not as tense anymore Lance still felt like shit. 

So no. No burger. 

"I - actually I don't feel all that well.", Lance admitted and rubbed his neck. "I should probably go home get some rest."

Hunk lightly patted his shoulder. "No problem buddy. Another time. Just make sure to get better, yeah."

Lance nodded and smiled at him before starting to walk towards the exit.

 

* * *

  
The night air was colder than he thought it would be, but not in a bad way. 

He felt a lot better just by breathing fresh air for a change. He hadn't even noticed the headache he'd had until it disappeared.

He looked around the area, it was dark - the streetlights were not exactly good ones apparently. He could still see enough to coordinate though - and thank god for that because he wasn't familiar enough to go back to the campus blind. 

He was walking fast. Why not?

It was dark, he was alone, he was starting to see shit everywhere because he was just so fucking tired. 

So yeah. 

Walking fast it was. 

This scared him. All of this, the people, the city, the history. _Everything_. 

The college was pretty good though. 

That's why he was here and that's why he wouldn't leave.  
\- definitely not that weird connection this town had with Keith. Nope - 

He felt watched.   
It felt like there were eyes everywhere, which only drove him to walk faster. 

He could already see the dormitory and he sighed in relief as he stepped onto the campus grounds.   
Somehow they felt a lot safer than the streets.

Walking up the few stairs to the dormitory Lance looked around once more. 

For a second he could have sworn that he saw a silhouette in the shadows but nope, not his business. 

Not tonight.


	6. Thunderstorms and Raspberries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance eyed the flyer critically as he turned it over in his hands.  
> "Altea Auto?", he asked Coran who was at his side in record speed.  
> "Yes, a friend of mine used to run it, it's the abandoned car garage in the outskirts."  
> "Abandoned?"  
> "He had to close down a few years ago, people age you know?"  
> Lance nodded and thanked Coran again for the advise and rescuing from possible pneumonia.  
> Then he left. 
> 
> He kept the flyer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DID IT!   
> I was able to get this done before I had to go! (sorry but I'm really proud of myself rn, it took long and I had to rewrite some of it about ten times, plus it's ass o'clock in the morning over here and I'm sleep deprived TM so....)
> 
> > There probably wont be a chapter for at best 2 weeks and in the worst case 4 weeks, so sorry <
> 
> So there you go, enjoy it because now shit's gettin real  
> Tschau mit V  
> \- German potato of doom

_"What would you do if I died?"_

_Keiths voice was quiet, almost inaudible against the loud thrumming of the rain against their hut. It was a wonder that he heard it at all given that Keith was curled up next to him with his head resting on his bare torso and Keith had all but spoken into his skin.  
And such a question at that? Lance almost thought Keith was joking there for a moment but when was Keith ever joking?_

_"..."_

_"No it's not.", Keith insisted as he turned to face Lance. "It is in fact more likely than I'd like it to be..."_

_Lance sighed as he looked at Keith. The warm light of the candles dancing across his pale face, his shining purple eyes worried and his thick black eyebrows pulled together ever so slightly. Lance carded a hand through the thick black locks of Keiths hair, matted with sweat and curling a little more than usual. It was a sight to behold, beautiful like nothing he had ever seen and deserving of so much more than he got._

_They had had this conversation more often than he would like to admit._

_Keith often worried about dying, and truth be told it he should do it way more often and in another way than he did.  
Keith was worried that if he died he would fail Lance. Leave him hanging and abandon him in some weird kind of way. He was afraid that he would be not good enough to protect him from everything and anything. It was a silly thing to think. _

_Keith, the one that trained day for day, harder and longer than any others, Keith that had gone through more than he ever will and Keith who made him wonder if he deserved such a wonderful person - yes_ this  _Keith thought he was not good enough._

_There had been more than a few times that Lance woke up to a crying Keith, curled up like a child and whispering things like 'it's all my fault' or 'I wasn't good enough'. He quickly became apparent that he was having nightmares of all sorts. Sometimes it was Lance that died, sometimes it would be Katie and at times even Hunk. The most important thing though was that he always blamed himself for it because he thought he had to protect them all._

_And now that more and more people from overseas followed the Spaniards to their island Keith got more and more nervous. People would come that knew of him and Katie, people that had been trying to find them back in Europe._

_Keith was afraid of that._

_He desperately wanted to safe what was now his family from having to go through the same as his actual family. At least that was what he told Lance when he found him crying into the sheets in the morning._

_Although he was trying at all times he never knew what Keith was thinking. Hunk he could read like a book but Keith?_

_He looked like he was about to cry again, his eyes filled with tears just a second from spilling._

_Lance moved his hand to cup Keiths cheek, rubbing soothing circles into his skin. When he got like that Lance was the only thing that could calm him down._

_"...."_

_Keith sighed and closed his eyes as he leaned into the touch._

_"I hope you're right..."_

_Lance smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his partners lips before touching their foreheads together._

_"..."_

_That actually got a chuckle out of Keith and Lance felt proud because Keith was his and he managed to make him happy._

_"Yeah, we'll always have each other."_

* * *

 

When Lance woke up that morning it was much slower than usual. 

He was not startled awake, he hadn't been screaming, he hadn't even been crying. When he looked over at Hunks side of the room he saw the slow rise and fall of Hunks chest beneath the bright yellow blanket. It was the first time he'd managed not to wake him up while he was having a dream. 

He sat up in his bed and rubbed a hand over his face, observing the room with bleary eyes. 

The sun was already up and the clock over the door told him that it was close to 11am. 

Lance groaned and fell back onto the mattress. 

Saturday, 2pm already, nothing to do and a sleeping roommate. 

If Hunk weren't sleeping.... maybe they could have talked about....

But Hunk was asleep, and maybe that was a good thing. Maybe...

Lance got up.

He should go for a run, the weather was good after all. He could explore the city a little bit, get familiar with his new home town and all.

Yeah, distraction. Distraction was always good.

* * *

Back at home he used to go for a run often.

He was a fast runner and had won his fair share of relays for his school team. When he was running he felt more confident than usual because he knew he was good at this. If there was only one thing he was good at it was outrunning any motherfucker trying to challenge him.

And god damn him if he wasn't proud of that.

There was a small path leading from the castle down to the lake. It was maybe about a mile long and when Lance reached the end of it he sat down on the lakes shore.

It was pure luck that Altea had such a nice lake.

He was one of those people that couldn't live without water within a ten mile radius. He had learned to swim before he could even walk so he was _really_ happy that there was a lake.

As he sat there and watched the water he found his thoughts straying to his dream again.

To the things that might have happened after he died, the things Keith might have done, might have thought. Before tonight he had never heard of Keiths fears, sure he had known that Keith had tried to sacrifice himself for Lance and the others, but that he was _that_ scared of anything happening to them?

He sighed.

Of course he had to go and get himself killed than. It must have wrecked Keith.

"Snap out of it Lance...", he sighed under his breath as he got up again, starting to run towards the center of Altea.

* * *

He still felt as though he was being watched. Followed.

Last night he had just put it down as the typical, 'it's Friday night, dark as fuck and there's definitely something behind me right?' - paranoia. But now he just really really had the feeling that someone was following him.

With every other step he took his head turned in another direction searching for the source of his paranoia. But he found nothing. 

He turned up the volume of the music a little and hummed a long - well good as possible given the situation that he was in fact still running. He tried to focus on his breathing and to keep up his rhythm when something deep down told him to look again because -  _LAAANCE THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING BEHIND YOU_

So he turned his head towards the trees lining his path on the right again and like befo- 

_Madre dios!_

Lance skittered to a stop staring wide eyed at the tree were he had seen something red move through the shadow. "Hello?", he called his voice wavering just a little.

_Wow Lance, nicely done_ , he thought to himself. _What are you? The blonde, white girl in every horror movie? ARE YOU STUPID?!_

But he pointedly ignored his inner voice and instead removed one of his earbuds and walked towards the tree.

The slight rustling sound of leafs made him back off a step again though.  

"Is there a-anybody?", Lance stuttered out dumbly because - wow Lance, wow. Always making fun of the characters in the movies but when  _you_ are the one doing the 'white people in horror movies tm' thingy it's totally okay. 

There is another rustle within the bushes and Lance prepares to run for his life. His mind is running a hundred miles per hour already, panicking because, _madre dios_ , those might as well be the last seconds of Lance McLain Alvare- 

The bushes rustled, something all but jumped out of them and Lance screamed. Higher than his four year old sister Mia ever could. 

 

The squirrel looked at Lance with it's big black eyes, probably having a cardiac arrest right there on the grass because Lance was screaming like a little girl.

Panting, Lance stared at the little figure retreating right back into the bushes safety. 

Wow.

Now he really had hit rock bottom. This was a new level of embarrassment. 

Better get away from here and forget that ever happened. Just a squirrel, no stalker. Stupid paranoia. 

He was about to start running again when a raindrop hit his head, then another, and another, and another.... 

Cursing under his breath Lance zipped up his jacket, picked up speed and prayed to whoever was listening that he wouldn't die of pneumonia. 

* * *

When he finally reached the city it didn't look peachy at the pneumonia front. He was soaked to the bones, felt as though he might freeze before he could even get a shot at getting pneumonia and Altea was thriving to become a modern version of Atlantis. 

So thank god for Coran for pulling him inside the diner as soon as he had seen him running around in the rain like that. Wrapping Lance up in a blanket and literally drowning him in hot chocolate, that was 'on him'. 

Over the past week Lance had spent quite a lot at Coran's diner. It was close to campus, not expensive and the food wasn't bad either, so he knew Coran a little better now. They had hit it off quite well and on Wednesday when Coran had asked why Lance looked so tired Lance had told him about the dreams he kept having. Only the basics though.   
Coran had told him that he'd had similar dreams a while back and that he could talk to him about it anytime if he wanted to, and to be honest? Right know, sitting in one of those red leather retro booths in corans diner, wrapped up in a wool blanket, sipping hot chocolate while watching the rain trying to drown a whole town, he really really wanted to talk, no matter how weird it would be or what Coran would think. Coran said he didn't have anything to do anyways so might as well talk to his new favorite customer - yes he'd officially thrown Pidge of their throne - a little while he had time.  

Because even though it had seemed more professional around Ally, he felt more relaxed around Coran. 

To be honest, Coran just seemed a lot more honest. 

So basically an hour later, filled with a lot of talking and two more cups of hot chocolate, Coran knew his whole life story. And as unsettling it was, it felt oddly pleasant. He hadn't come that far with Ally and god knows why, but he felt like Coran would be ten times better at giving advise anyways - sorry Ally.

So after a while of twirling his bright red mustache Coran looked Lance straight in the eye, way too serious for Lances liking.

"Boy, I like you but you got issues."

Lance snorted at that. "No shit. I almost scared a poor squirrel to death because it scared me first."

The redhead chuckled and shook his head. "No that's not what I mean."

When Lance frowned Coran took a deep breath. "I'm going to be as honest as possible with you Lance."

Lance nodded and prepared himself as good as possible.

"You're right about your friends keeping secrets from you.", Coran stated, trying to gauge his reaction as good as possible before continuing. What was he expecting Lance to do? Have a melt down? With how things were going right now he was sure nothing could really shock him at the moment - well except for squirrels maybe. "I'm quite literally not allowed to tell you everything so I'll tell you this instead. Talk to Hunk, he is in this situation the one you should turn to since I have no idea where- "

He suddenly stopped. 

"Where what?", Lance pressed. He wanted to know. Coran  _knew_ something. This was the most information he had gotten out of anyone for the past week. 

He still needed more though. 

But Coran shook his head. "I'm sorry, you should really see Hunk about it. If he tries to talk himself out of it that I said he should get his quiznak together and be a man for once."

Lance nodded, the blanket quickly abandoned and the now dry jacket quickly put on. The rain had ceased long ago and now that Lance knew what to do he just couldn't sit anymore. 

"Thanks Coran.", he said quickly as he made his way towards the exit. 

"Take care boy!", he heard Coran call when he was halfway out the door. 

 

That was when something caught his eye. 

The flyers on the pile were just as red as the leather of the booths and Lance felt a weird sensation settle in his stomach as he frowned and picked one up. 

Lance eyed the flyer critically as he turned it over in his hands.

"Altea Auto?", he asked Coran who was at his side in record speed.

 "Yes, a friend of mine used to run it, it's the abandoned car garage in the outskirts."

 "Abandoned?"

 "He had to close down a few years ago, people age you know?"

Lance nodded and thanked Coran again for the advise and rescuing from possible pneumonia.

Then he left.

 

He kept the flyer.

* * *

Hunk was not home when Lance returned to their room. There was a yellow post it note sticking to Lances desk top saying,  _Out with Pidgeon and Shay, we have to take of something_

So yeah, that was that. 

He shot Hunk a text message to meet him at the bar as soon as they got back. Hunk replied that they'd be there at eight at best. 

Great. 

_Three more hours to go,_ he thought as he stared at the stars on his ceiling. 

He had absolutely no idea what to do with the time he had. And doing nothing was not an option. Because if he did nothing he would start to think, and if he started to think he would start hurting again and right now he needed none of that bullshit. 

He needed the truth right now.

But Hunk wasn't there so he settled for something else.

 

Taking the fire red flyer out of his jackets pocket he quickly looked for a way to get there on his phone and started his scavenger hunt.

 

He had never been that person to look for abandoned places. Not even if he got that 'hey you should totally investigate that' feeling. 

Well not until  _now_ anyways, because in Altea there was probably nothing Lance  _wouldn't_ do. Though he quickly realized that this had been probably his worst idea ever. 

He had been walking for hours, quite literally, getting lost twice in the process and nearly got run over by a car that one time when he had been crossing the street. It was now 7pm and if he took anything near the time he had taken to get here to get back to the bar it would be way past the time he had settled on with Hunk, though that was probably his smallest problem at the moment - if Hunk really had kept secrets from him than he could wait for a while, Lance didn't care. No what was more important was how he would get into the building in front of him. 

The building was small, with a slightly bigger garage attached to it's right side. Right above the barricaded entrance hung a sign that said 'Altea Auto' in tall red letters, and to be honest, it looked like it seen better days. In fact, the whole building looked like it had seen better days as well. 

He really didn't know if he really wanted to enter that building but hey! He didn't do what he wanted anymore he started to act purely on instinct - for some reason - and he knew that his instinct was an idiot so he was screwed. 

He rounded the building to see if there was a way to enter since not only was the entry barricaded but all the windows too. Luckily - probably not for the owner - there was a hole in the back of the main building through which he could get in. 

And boy, oh boy if the outside had looked old the inside looked downright  _ancient._  

Everything was covered in multiple thick layers of dust, painting - what was visible of the room - in a sickly gray. There was light filtering through the hole in the wall and the slits the planks shielding the windows created, it was not nearly enough to light up the whole room, but he did see that this was in fact an office. The computer was probably decades old and there were a few cracks in the table top of a desk, he didn't even find a desk chair.

What was way more interesting though, was something in the back of the room.   

There was a pile of pillows and a blanket stacked in one of the corners, surrounded by candles, empty chip bags and other stuff, a strange messenger bag included.

Lance should probably just go, walk back as fast as he can and hope that he'll make it back before it get's dark - but that's only what his mind was saying. His guts were all like, 'pillow look soft, feet hurt, Lance sit' - and Lance already said that but his instincts were faaaaaar more important at the moment so, that was that. 

The pillows were indeed very soft, Lance noticed as he snuggled up against the wall. It was probably not okay to cuddle up in some strangers private corner but Lance was _tired_ and - oooooooh messenger bag! 

Okay so snooping around in a strangers messenger bag was even worse than sitting in his spot but, what would you have done, huh? Just curious you know?

So there was chewing gum, a few pencils a sketchbook ... and look at that a bunch of pictures. 

_Not okay, not okay, not o-_

The first picture was one of the castle. It was a polaroid, a pretty one at that. The was setting behind the castle, the lake was glittering in the background and in the foreground he could se the head of a person with dark hair, facing away from the camera. 

It was obviously old, the edges were starting to become yellowish already and there were fine lines across the surface, it must have been folded before...

The next picture was a polaroid too, a newer one though, one of a bike. A really nice bike, a sporttourer in black with red accents. Lance smiled, he had a feeling Keith would really like that one.  _If he was real..._ that oh so helpful voice in his head supplied. 

The last polaroid picture made Lance look twice because there was seriously _no way_ that this photo even existed. 

It was a photo of the shop,  _the one he was in RIGHT NOW ,_ at what seemed to be new years eve in the year 2000 - judging by the banner in the background and the fireworks. In the foreground though there were two people holding onto probably hundreds of sparklers, lightning their faces so that Lance could recognize them despite the darkness. 

Pidge and Hunk. 

Celebrating the start of the year 2000, looking  _exactly_ like they do now.

With his eyes wide open in shock Lance sank deeper into the pillows. 

_How ...? Just - HOW?_

Just as he was starting to have the panic attack of his life, it hit him. That scent radiating off the pillows... 

His mind began to race again, only outdone by his heart. 

 

Never in his life had he gotten up that fast. 

* * *

He had been running for quite the while now, he had officially lost track of where he was and it was pitch black, except for the crappy streetlights. 

He was panting harshly, his lungs burning as badly as his thighs.   
Though every cell of his body protestet his mind kept on racing. 

_Thunderstorms and raspberries..._

Hot tears stung in his eyes. 

  _... where is_ he _though..._

_... He said he didn't feel well ...._

_... we can't just do this without_ him _..._

How had he been so blind all this time?!  _How_?!

He tried to pick up speed again.

He needed to go faster. 

Needed to - 

As though something had shattered he zipped through the streets in a flash of blue. 

In a matter of seconds he found himself clashing against a wall with full force. 

He fell back onto the ground crying out in pain, but for some reason he got up again. _He shouldn't be able to get up after hitting a wall like that_.

His body had gone into autopilot staggering forward towards the street, he had somehow ended up in an alleyway.

 

He knew where he was. The bar was just around the corner.

 

There were a couple of guys gathered around the streetlight nearest to him, when one of them caught sight of Lance staggering around like a zombie he nudged one of his friends and nodded towards Lance, who immediately started snorting and laughing. The others soon joined.

A few called him names.

Lance was angry.

He was not himself, he felt as though he was watching everything from afar, as though it was not him in that body.

He barely recalled moving his hand upwards.

He barely recalled seeing blue rays of light hitting on of the guys.  

They ran.

Lance fell to the ground all of his energy leaving him at once.

_Thunderstorms and raspberries...._ he knew that scent. But how was it...? Now...?

Despite the faint blue glow all around him his vision started to darken.

He wasn't sure if he saw someone running towards him or not.

He wasn't sure of _anything._

Except for the fact that he was fainting.... _quickly_.

* * *

By the time he got to him, Lance was too far gone already, blue energy oozing off him in thick waves.

" _Lance_...."  


	7. Paladin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We never meant to put you in any danger. It's just that you came back when Keith was in Europe, with Matt and Shiro and we wanted to do it together, you know? We should have listened to Allura but we thought that Keith deserved to be there and -"  
> "Two weeks ago I didn't know any of you."  
> Lance looked down at his hands and folded them in his lap to stop them from fidgeting. He was nervous.   
> "I think I should explain a little."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhh..... hi?  
> Well guess who's back and feels guilty about cliffhangering the f out of the last chapter whoops.
> 
> So yeah, back from Sweden and finally giving you some answers!  
> I'm really grateful for all the positive feedback so a big thank you to everyone reading this >.<

Keith was beautiful. Even when he was frowning at him with his eyes full of concern.

The light around him was way too bright, making him glow like an angel.

A smile broke out on his face and a few tears slipped from those piercing purple eyes.  
"Lance, thank _god_. You almost got me there for a second.", his voice sounded a bit scratchy yet happy, but far, far, away.

" _Keith_..."  
Lance sounded - and felt - like he had been hit by a train.

"Yeah, it's me.", the other said softly.

Lance sighed.

A dream again.

"We have to work on that one though.", Keith joked his pale hand slipping into Lance's tan one. "You almost beat my ass that one time without batting an eye and now you're blacking out from just that?"

Lance felt his eyes tear up.

 _Why can't you be real, Keith? Why do you have to taunt me like that? What did I ever do wrong?_  
He hurt all over and his eyes fluttered shut again.

"... please ....", he sighed his voice barely audible. "... you - you're not real.... please leave me alone."

"But- ...Lance", Keith sounded hurt.

"Please.... those dreams....", Lance whispered as his mind went blank again.

He felt as though everything had been wrapped into cotton, the sounds were muffled and he began to see white.

He heard a soft whimpering noise as Keiths hand slid from his lax grasp and footsteps hurried away.

 

 _Just a dream... it's over now_ , he thought as he was enveloped by darkness again.

* * *

He was _not_ in his room. That was for sure.  
For a few seconds he just blinked at the white ceiling, confused as to why there were no stars attached to it.

"Hunk, honey, I think he's awake..."  
Shay, his brain provided after maybe five seconds of confusion.

"Lance!", Hunk appeared before him his black hair mussed up and the yellow bandana crooked. He looked as though he hadn't slept in ages and his eyes were red from crying. "Shit I'm so sorry. I- ... we-"

And then he started crying.

Lance didn't know what was happening. Why was Hunk apologizing and crying?

Shay took his hand and tugged him away from Lance a bit, before turning to him herself. "Lance I guess you don't understand any of this and it's actually not important... for now.", she said with a gentle smile, though she didn't look any better than her boyfriend. "What's more important right now is that you're alright. How are you feeling can you speak?"

Lance blinked at her.

What the _hell_?

He had been sleeping, that was it, he hadn't been in a coma or something.

"Of course I can!", Lance said, but he sounded more hoarse than he would have thought.

His head hurt like hell.

Shay sighed a little and nodded. "Do you want some water? Something to eat?"

Lance frowned at her. "Uh ... no? What the- why are you...?"

He tried sitting up only to be held down by Shay instantly. "Lance please take it easy for a while, you should stay in bed for a few more hours."

He was slowly starting to come to his senses again after waking up. Fully awake he swatted Shays hand away harshly and sat up.

"No I _wont_.", He protested, "What the hell is going on here again?!"  
In the background Hunk was still sobbing quietly, muttering a soft 'I'm sorry' every now and then.

And then out of no where Pidge appeared from behind Hunk and nudged Shay to the side.

"You should get him out of here. I don't think he can handle this...", they said calmly, more serious than ever.

Shay swallowed thickly. "What about you?"

The small person shrugged with a sad smile playing around their lips. "Shay that is my job. I've done it so often that I stopped counting the RE's I've treated at some point."

Shay nodded and squeezed Hunks hand lightly. "Let's go", she told him softly and with one last apologetic look from Hunk they were gone.

Pidge turned to him and sighed a little before pulling one of the chairs in the room towards the bed.

Lance didn't know whether or not he should say something, he wanted to know what a 'RE' was but Pidge was the one to start talking first.

"Do you know how much time passed since the incident?"

Lance frowned at them. "Incident? I was sleeping Pidge. I must have fallen asleep while I was waiting for you."

Pidge shook their head. "No Lance, you've been unconscious for four days."

His eyes widened as he gaped at them in disbelief. Four days? _Unconscious_?! 

Pidge didn't seem to care, they continued what Lance supposed was a monolog they knew by heart by now.

"Do you know what you are?", they asked and seriously, Lance had never been this scared in his entire life.

"Pidge, what- ...", He swallowed thickly. "I don't know what you mean."

They shook their head. "You know what I mean. Lance think! Your dreams, the incident, what do you think you are?"

"How do you know about my-"

"Every RE has them"

Lance looked at them utterly mortified. "Pidge-"

"Lance you're a Paladin.", they just said, not giving him any time to think or say anything. "To be more exact a Paladin RE, in which 'RE' stands for 'reincarnation'."

His stomach dropped.

He had no idea what a Paladin was supposed to be, but the word reincarnation made goosebumps brake out on his skim.

"Your 'dreams' are memories from your first life that are coming back to you."

"Does that mean-"

Pidge nodded, he didn't even need to finish for them to understand.

"It's all real."

Those three simple words caused hundreds of reactions. His palms became sweaty, his stomach dropped and he felt nauseous, his heart started racing and he thought he might have a panic attack again.

But still, those three simple words were everything he needed to hear.

Some part of him had somehow always known that the dreams had something real about them. How it was possible was not important, but he somehow felt as though it could be. Because no one could think of a person like Keith, not just like that. 

"Keith...", the word slipped past his lips almost automatically. While his brain was still chanting, _'... it's real, it's real, he is real ...'_  

Pidge nodded a sad expression crossing their face for a second. "Yes, he is real and still alive. He was here, this morning. Do you remember?"

All thoughts came to a stop, his heart stopped for a beat or so, and then clenched painfully.

"Shit....", he sighed.

Pidge frowned. "What?"

Lance sighed and ran a hand through his matted hair. "I told him to leave because I didn't want any more dreams.... you know? I thought I was dreaming again and- _oh fuck_..."

Pidge flinched. "Ouch! Well that explains a lot...."

When Lance shot them a questioning look they sighed a little. "He came out of your room and said that you'd probably wake up in a few, then he left."

" _WHAT_?", Lance exclaimed. "Where'd he go?!"

He struggled to get up and shoved the blanket out of the way, when Pidge put both of their hands on his shoulders.

"Relax. Okay?", they said and motioned him to sit down again. "It's not the first time Keith ran away. He's usually at his old garage."

_The garage..._

So the pile of pillows and blankets, the messenger bag... was Keiths? The bike on the photo- Keiths, the pretty picture with the sunset - Keith in front of the castle...

He remembered being at the garage again, the faint scent of raspberries and thunderstorms and the dusted computer. It all came back.  
His escape, the blue flash that seemed to rip right through him, the group of men at the corner near the bar...

"Shit.", he said again.

"Do you remember now?", Pidge pressed and he nodded in response. "Can you tell me what happened exactly?"

Lance worried his lower lip between his teeth. "I went to that car garage... I found a flyer at Corans and had the feeling that I should go check it out..."

Pidge nodded. "Like a someone was pulling you towards it?"

"Yeah... like that.", Lance admitted. "When I was there I found those pictures... one of you and Hunk, a motorcycle, and one of the castle. The one from Hunk and you was ... it was from new years eve in the year 1999 - well 2000 if you want to, but that's beside the point. You didn't age one bit though you should be more than 20 years older if the photo is legit. So I got out of there to meet up with you because Coran said if I wanted answers I should talk to you and after that I really needed answers."

Pidge nodded along, taking in his every word as though what he was saying was perfectly normal.

"And I was trying to get there as fast as possible because the stuff there smelled just like Keith and that meant he had been there and- and I ran and tried to go faster but I couldn't and then I suddenly - I don't know, it was like a lightning strike. There was that blue glow and it was like I was flying all of a sudden...."

"Wait you _what_?", Pidge shook their head wildly. "I had no idea that you were able to do a power sprint... Keith only told me about the blast."

"A what...?", Lance asked and frowned at them, because literally none of all this made sense to him.

Pidge looked at him a little sheepish. "Man, you really don't know shit huh?"

Lance snorted. "Yeah, and whose fault is that?"

From what he'd gathered Pidge and the others had known that he was a 'RE', or whatever, but didn't even think about explaining anything to him. So now he was clueless, felt like shit and had no idea where he was.

Maybe that's why Hunk was apologizing...?

Pidge bit their lip. "Lance we're all sorry.", they started. "We never meant to put you in any danger. It's just that you came back when Keith was in Europe, with Matt and Shiro and we wanted to do it together, you know? Like back then, as a team. We should have listened to Allura...", by now they sounded close to tears. Lance had no idea why. "...but we thought that Keith deserved to be there and -"

"What do you mean ' _back then_ '?", Lance knew he was being rude and probably more than just a little insensible, but he couldn't help it. "Two weeks ago I didn't know any of you."

That seemed to ground them at least a little. They nodded and pushed their glasses up their tiny nose. "Right. I'm sorry, I got a little carried away there for a bit."

Lance looked down at his hands and folded them in his lap to stop them from fidgeting. He was nervous.

"I think I should explain a little."

That would be very nice, Lance thought, but didn't say a thing.

As much as he wanted to know what was going on here, he didn't want to hear anything right now. This was all too much.  
He was tired of all of this, he just wanted to lay down in a dark place with no sounds and no people.  
Not talking, not thinking, not seeing or hearing.

Just silence.

But Pidge talked anyways.

"For now, I'll tell you the basics so that you're prepared for the things ahead of us."

Pidges words made him feel nauseous.

"You're a RE, which stands for reincarnation, means, that you lived already, but were reborn after you died. It would sound impossible to normal humans, but were are not humans."  
He swallowed thickly.

_Not human._

But how could he be not human, and what was he then?  
He vaguely remembered Pidge saying something about something called a 'Padding', or something like that? But what the hell did that mean?

"I'll explain everything in detail later but for now, all you need to know is that we are able to use energy in a way others would call 'magic', though I don't really like that word..."

Lance nodded numbly.

None of this made sense, like zero sense at all, but it was something. It was what he had seen in his dreams - which he never told them about by the way - so he could at least listen, right?

"RE's dream of their previous life, that's a fact. Usually they are out of order, though we've had cases where some dreams occured after a timeline. But mostly only three in a row.  
They don't know that they are inhuman, and that's a huge problem. You remember that I said that we use energy to do", they sighed, obviously unamused, "'magic'?"

Lance nodded.

"Well this energy is stowed in our body, in our blood, organs, and so on. I'll get to that point later.", they looked somewhat disappointed as though they could and would talk hours about that topic. "The important thing is, if we don't use it for a longer amount of time it starts building up pressure at certain points. The most important one is the 'marker' - how we call it. It marks your key ability which is connected to the kind of energy you posses- again, more of that later.

When there is enough energy pent up at the marker our brain eventually gives in and energy is set free on it's own. Something like that is very common among RE's because around 95 percent of them never learn the truth about themselves.  
We call it 'cracking', because the process is rather similar to what happens to a bottle when it cracks, the insides flow out. When that happens your body starts running on autopilot and starts using up all of your energy at once.

You can't stop them yourself, you'd need the help of another to do that, so your energy levels will drop to zero in no time. And if that happens....  
It's kind of like bleeding out.

We can regenerate energy to a certain point, that point is at about five percent energy, but your lights go out at ten percent.  
When Keith brought you here you were down to seven percent and unconscious. It took you four days to regenerate. Just a little later and we would have had to put you into one of the healing pods. They help bringing your energy levels back on track should they drop below five percent.", They made a small pause for Lance to let it sink - which was very much appreciated, because wow, that was a lot to process.

He almost _died_! But .... Keith saved his life ...?

Pidge continued their speech,

"Most RE's are not that lucky. They tend to bleed out before they can reach one of our stations. Our statistics say that 89 percent of them die before their tenth birthday, six percent die at the ages of ten to eighteen and then there are the five percent that make it to get help before they can crack.  
We're trying our best to save as many RE's as possible, but as far as I've come with my studies regarding them I still can't precisely calculate the exact date and place of a RE's birth... that would make many things a lot easier."

The air around them was thick with sadness.

There seemed to be so many people they wanted to help but couldn't.

Lance briefly wondered if they blamed themselves for those deaths.  
"Okay enough of this, we should get into that later when you're out of the pod.", they said and shook their head as though they wanted to get rid of the bad thoughts.

"Wait... _what_?", Lance frowned at them. "I-... I thought I was okay? Why do I have to go into one of those healing pods?"  
They looked a little confused for a second, blinking at him a few times, before bursting out laughing.

They laughed.

At this point Lance was way too tired and way too confused for that shit. He just sighed and rubbed his left hand over his forehead.    
"Pidge, please..."

"Sorry Lance, but you have no idea how much I've missed this.", they said and shook their head with a grin. "We have two kinds of pods. One for healing and one for restoring the memories of RE's that come here. You'll need them to learn how to use your powers."  
They got up and put the chair back to where they had gotten it from. "Come on Star boy, we've got a lot to do."

Lances eyebrows shot up to his hairline almost instantly.

Did they seriously expect him to just go with them like that after everything he had just heard? Oh hell no!  
He didn't know what the hell he should be thinking about all of this, should he believe what Pidge said? Could he trust him? Hell, could he trust anyone? They had lied to him god damn it and now he had almost _died_ because of it!

So _why_ , why the hell, should he believe any word they told him?

"You don't have to believe what I'm saying. Not yet.", they said and if Lance didn't know better he would say that they could read minds. But the expression on Pidges face told him that they were probably not doing this for the first time so they were already expecting this.  
They were already halfway out the room.

"But at least let me try to convince you."

* * *

The way to the pods would take a while, at least that's what Pidge had told him.

The corridors looked a lot like the ones in the castle, tall ceilings, white walls that were way too clean to be walls- like seriously how? Anyways. There were no windows in here, the only lights coming from some weird looking lamps that were somehow embedded in the ceiling. He felt like this wasn't the castle.

"So...", Pidge said drawing out the 'o' a little, trying to break the awkward silence in a not awkward way - as though that was possible. "Any questions?"

Lance raised an eyebrow at them, because did they seriously just say that?

"Okay _okay_ , stupid thing to say.", they muttered and then sighed. "Go on, shoot. It's my job to answer your questions."

His mood brightened, even when it was just a tiny bit. On a scale of worst day of my life to best it's probably at 'still shitty but at least it's not raining.'  
He was finally getting some answers now. _Finally_.

All the questions running through his mind, buzzing and itching to be said, to be answered. It was difficult to try to figure out what to say first, it was way too much at once, but he'd always been great at running his mouth without thinking.  
"So my dreams are-... were real?", Lance knows they've already said that, but he apparently needed them to repeat it for him.

"Yes."

He nodded to himself. "All the things really happened?"

"Again, _yes_.", Pidge said and looked up at him with a frown. "You're pretty hung up on that one huh?"

"Just really hard to grasp I guess....", he mutters more to himself than to them. It really was strange. A 'reincarnation', having lived but being born again. He felt oddly empty at that thought. All that time you're telling yourself that you have to be at least a little special because you're you and there's no one like you, and then you find out that you're just a copy.  
Which kind of lead him to the next question.

"Am I much like - uh... the other me?"

Pidge let out a breathy laugh. "Yeah. You are... you totally are."

"So you knew me?"

"Hm?"

"The old me, you knew them?"

Pidge nodded, their expression guarded obviously doing their best to try and keep their cool - something Lance had given up on pretty much as soon as he woke up that day.  
He had figured out that they did this often. Hell they had told him that this was their 'job' more than once already. But they also made it seem personal, they were clearly affected by the things happening around them - something they seemingly weren't used to.

"Yeah.", they said quietly, confirming his theory.

"I don't remember you...", Lance says just as quiet.

Why doesn't he remember them? They seemed familiar from the start but he just doesn't _remember._

"That's why we have the pods."

"What about Hunk? Was he there too?", Lance asked, not able to let go of that one thought.

 _Not again_ , he could still hear Hunk say it. It was the night he'd had the dream about his death.

"Hunk, Keith, Shiro, my brother Matt...", they sighed. "We were all there."

It was like that boxing match Lance had watched with his father back when he was only twelve. It was the first and only one he'd ever seen. Why? Because it had been plainly cruel.

There had been that kid, probably barely legal, fighting against a professional. He still doesn't know how the kid got that far in the first place, but that fight? That fight was no where near fair. The boy took one hit, and another and another and another.....  
Right now, six years later, Lance remembered that fight.

He felt like the boy.

Taking hit after hit after hit after hit after hit.....  
All those things beating down on him, the flow of information never ceasing. Every time he had at least recovered a little there were ten new things knocking him over again. 

Hit, hit, hit, hit, hit,.....

"When?", he choked out, his throat feeling tight. All of them had been there.

"You were born in 1477 and died in 1499, at the age of 22.", their voice becoming more and more quiet with each word.

"Over 500 years....", he whispered, his eyes wide and glued to the white floor.

He didn't get their reaction.  
Hit, hit, hit, _can't breathe_ , hit, hit, hit....

"How long.... how old....?", he frowned walking a little faster. He didn't doubt, he just knew. Too much evidence to much to take in. " _Keith_... where...?!"

 _Lance!_  
Something caught on his wrist.

hit,hit,hit,hit,hit,hit....

_"Lance!"_

He stopped in his tracks as he realized that it was Pidge. He turned his head to the side, seeing their tiny hands holding onto his wrists.

"We're there..."

* * *

Lance wouldn't say that he was terrified. Nope, Lance McLain Alvarez didn't get scared. Never - the one with the squirrel so didn't count by the way.  
So no he was not terrified at the display before his eyes. A huge room. How tall or wide he couldn't tell, it was really dark.

The six pods, high built glass tubes were the only source of light. Their displays emitting a soft blue glow that barely made a difference in the darkness of the room.  
It looked straight out of Si-Fi thriller.

He definitely wasn't terrified.

"Activate REP unit 06.", Pidge commanded, their voice echoing off the walls far into the darkness.

"Please verify your identity.", a weird robotic voice answered their call, a keybord popping out of the floor like a god damn flower.

Okay scratch the not scared part.

"Katherine Holt, security level 13. Activate REP unit 06."

 _Wait!_.... hold the _fuck_ up!

"Katherine H-"

"Shht!", Pidge waved a hand at him to shut him up.

"Katherine Holt, please verify your identity. Please use the platform to verify ...."

"Ughh, this fucking thing.", they muttered as they tapped away on the keybord, shaking their head as the voice repeated itself over and over. "Matt's idea. He thinks that if we don't secure all of our shit with those stupid security levels someone might fuck up our data. I mean it's good enough to keep out some of the rather curious RE's at times, but otherwise it's just really annoying."  
Lance swallowed thickly while he watched the last one in the row of tubes light up. There was a thick 06 painted on it's front, he could see that now.

"Unit 06 activated. Please remove the proTEC suit from it's compartment and enter the subjects data."

And indeed a small hatch opened at the foot of the pod.  
"Could you please get the suit?", Pidge asked as they continued tapping around on their keyboard. It was glowing in that weird shade of blue as well.

Lance nodded absentmindedly as his legs started off towards the hatch on their own. His mind too hung up on the rest.  
_He_ was the subject. That suit? For him. The tube? For him. That data... was his - whatever that was supposed to mean.

The suit was black and felt silky, looked a little like his scuba-gear at his abuelitas house in varadero.

"Put that on.", Pidge - or _Katherine_? God he was so confused - said from somewhere behind him. "The pod will be ready any second now...."

Only now did he realize that - holy shit - he would be put in that weird scuba-gear suit but also into that weird pod, tube thingy.

He looked for Pidge from where he kneeled in front of the tube. He felt like being hit again as he stared at the lights that reflected off their round glasses.  
"I'm not gonna hop into that thing there.", he said quietly, but the echo made it seem ten times louder.

"Lance it's necessary.", Pidge sighed, again sounding as though they had already gotten used to that sentence. "To remember everything is essential for later training sessions."

Lance' eyebrows knitted together as he turned to the suit again.

"And it makes things a lot easier.... for all of us.", they added quietly.

* * *

The suit fit him like a second skin. How exactly that was possible he didn't know. But it felt uncomfortable.  
Pidge had stuck some sticker like patches to his forehead, his hands and his feet.  
He swallowed thickly as he watched Pidge tapping away onto the keyboard.

"You alright in there?", they asked and for the first time in maybe ten minutes they looked up from their controls.

"Well uh... I guess?", Lance said not even trying to mask the heavy tone of worry in his voice.

"It'll be okay.", they assured him for probably the 100th time now. Then they turned to the faceless voice of the room again. "Initiate recovery process."

"Recovery Process initiated."

Lance tilted his head to the side. And what was supposed to be happening n-  
With a horrifying clicking noise a flap shot up and the pod closed.

Hit,hit,hit---

Lance felt like his heart stopped beating and his lungs gave out. "Pidge?!", his voice was higher than usual, panic seeping into it in no time at all.

"Calm down Lance it's okay.", they said, stepping around the keyboard toward the pod, their voice was muffled through the thick layer of glass.

Something cold touched his feet, spreading quickly, something wet.  
When he looked down a bright, almost turquoise liquid had already reached his calves, rising further, and further, and further...

"Pidge!!!", he yelled, panicked, slamming his hands against the glass.

It was past his hip now.

"Lance, stay calm you can-"  
"Stay calm?! HOW?!!", he was breathing heavily, looking for a way out. "Pidge DO SOMETHING!"

They were shaking - were they shaking? Maybe he was shaking. _Fuck_ it was up to his shoulders by now.

"Lance, stay calm, breath it in, it wont hurt, I promise!", they pleaded. 

He shook his head wildly, "No, no, no, no, _no_ \- fuck! PIDGE DO SOMETHIN-ngh!!"

Liquid filled his mouth.  
He tried to spit it out, gasp for air, escape, but the tube was closed, filled to the top with that liquid. 

"Breathe it in Lance!", Pidge called from the other side of the glass.

He already did... accidentally. 

His lungs felt strange, as did the rest of his body. Head dizzy and vision blurring around the edges.  
Soft, floating, blue glow---

Hit

_Hit_

**_Hit_ **

* * *

  
_When he entered the REP hall unit six was the only one that was lit._

_He couldn't help the relieved sigh leaving his lips as he saw that Lance was indeed there, in Unit six._  
_Kat_ _ie had given him the newest unit, the one with the least problems._

_He took a few steps towards the pod, his footsteps sounding oddly heavy._

_Lance looked peaceful. His eyes closed, body relaxed and head tilted to the side ever so slightly._  
_"Hey there .... uh_ star boy _.", he whispered, his hand lifting to lay against the cool glass of the pod. "Hunk said Katie is calling you that now?"_

_No answer._

_Of course not._

_"I-....", he sighs, removing his hand from where Lance hand lies behind the glass. "Well let's see how long we'll have to wait huh?"_  
_He stepped back a little, smiling fondly at how Lance' hair flows back and forth around his head._

_"Show me the recovery process stats of unit 06."_

_"Please verify your identity."_

_He sighs stepping forward to the keyboard, ready to type his password._  

 

_"Security level 15.  Andrews, Keith."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I just revived my tumblr blog so if any of you wants to chat about this story, klance or you know just THINGs in general my blog is called german potato of doom - just like my ao3 account ;) )


	8. When I was gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weird questions, Lance thought to himself. But hey, it's Charlize Theron, in one of those clichéd white rooms without ceilings, doors or really anything else, so why question it right?  
> "I'm sorry, but could you just- I don't know, uh tell me where I am?"  
> "This is your mind.", the woman answered, Lance only now realizing how unrealistic her voice sounded to him.  
> "Wow uh thanks... very helpful, I guess..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH GOD I'M SO SORRY  
> Like,  
> I tried, I TRIED REALLY HARD but god dang it, writing is hard.  
> And I have like -200 time points or whatever and ARRRRGH school is just- it- ... It's like they're actively TRYING to kill me. And then my anxiety started acting up again ... aaaaaand I'm rambling again aren't I?  
> Anyways, take this chapter as an apology, and I hope you like it.  
> (And thank you guys SO much for the support so far love ya ^^)  
> P.S.: Just a quick heads up because my writing style went a little bizarre on that one

He was aware of what was happing at the moment, he knew where he was, what was happening, aware of where he was -

He was not awake?

.... confused confused _confused_ ...

Dizzy, his head was spinning.

Did dreaming feel like this?

Wait.

He was still in the pod. Still in the - the water.  
Was it even water? He briefly wondered but - fuck - that didn't matter, because what if he drowned? He could have drowned!

Was he ... _dead_?  
Did dying feel like this?

Everything was dark, could he open his eyes? No.  
He was dead.

But _why_? Why would Pidge do that? how could they just d -

"Hello."

He opened his eyes, how was it possible that he suddenly could-...?

The light was blinding, white and everywhere. The space was wide and empty and woman....

..... woman?

She was tall, blonde .... kind of looked like Charlize Theron...?  
Her clothes - a loose pantsuit - perfectly blended in with their surroundings all white and pristine and - dude seriously what the _fuck_ is Charlize Theron doing here?!

"Lance McLain Alvares?", She asked, her head tilting to the side slightly, but her expression not moving not even in the slightest.

He frowned at her, squinting against the bright light. "Uhm yes?"

"Born on the 28th of July in the year 2004?"

_Weird questions_ , Lance thought to himself. But hey, it's Charlize Theron, in one of those clichéd white rooms without ceilings, doors or really anything else, so why question it right?

"Yes...", he sighed. "I'm sorry, but could you just- I don't know, uh tell me where I am? Pidge put me into one of those creepy tube thingies and I really don't know wha-"

"This is your mind.", the woman answered, Lance only now realizing how unrealistic her voice sounded to him. Kind of like the one he heard before, when Pidge turned this thing on.  
"Wow uh thanks... very helpful, I guess...", he mumbled none the wiser, if not even more confused. "Who are you and uhm... what are you- what are we doing in my 'mind'?"

She blinked at him, her posture still and unmoving, looking kind of awkward in that 'terminator/robot' kind of way.

Creepy as hell.

"My name is KaM2. I was designed to manage safety controls as well as general control over the castle and retrieval processes like yours. The system is currently synchronizing with your body so I'm checking the personal data Pidge gave me."

Okay. That certainly didn't make things better.  
Lance let out a nervous chuckle, "Okay then....KaM2...?"

She - it? - nodded and then straightened their posture all of a sudden.

"System linked, memories connected. Overall damage - mediocre. Ready for further retrieval.", they - she ? God robot women were confusing okay?! - said, not to Lance rather to themself if anything, they looked straight past Lance' head into the endless white space.  
"What the h-"

The words got stuck in his throat, all air knocked out of him.

And then he was falling falling falling falling fallin falli gfallinf rfallidngg

Black and white flickering in the background - falling falling

fall

_fall_

**_fall_ **

* * *

  
_Life can be pretty short._

_Especially when it's all patched up, hundreds of bits and pieces of information squezzed together tightly and flashing in front of him within splits of seconds._

_Hunk, his parents, the village, the elders, he liked nana she always covered for him if he or Hunk made the other elders angry, running, forests, glowing lakes in the dark, stars and long nights, his parents, family- he loves them, laughing, running faster, faster - a blue flash_

_A longer bit._

_"Don't be confused son, the goddess blessed you, this is a great present."_  
_"I don't understand mother..."_  
_"You will."_

_Blue light flowing through his veins, zooming through the area, beating Hunk, beating everyone, running running running..._

_"We have to take a look at that!"_  
_"I don't know... Aeron said he saw white men there."_  
_"Exactly! We should go see it!"_

_White men, a lot of them, a huge bowl of wood carrying them through the waves, the elders and the minors were brought deeper into the island, the others stayed, he never saw his parents again after that._

_"Take Hunk with you, I don't want anything happening to you."_  
_He laughs "Nana, I'm not a child anymore, I'm a warrior now! I think I can survive searching for berries"_

_Sad smile, ruffled hair, he takes Hunk with him anyways._  
_Walking, the same forests but new areas..._

_"What was that noise?"_  
_"I don't think we should- No! DON'T!"_  
_He is gone before Hunks words reach him._

_Two people, white skinned, talking in tounges he doesn't understand, a small one and one with dark hair, wearing weird things. Red light, it reminds him of the training he did with Hunk, blocking and atta-_

_The small one shoots. Green._  
_They are.... happy?_

_He is fascinated, Hunk is scared._

_More and more longer bits...._

_"I don't think this is a good idea..."_  
_"What are they wearing? It looks odd..."_  
_"Are you even listening? We should go, warn Nana and the other elders that they're coming closer again."_  
_"You worry too much-"_

_The dark haired turns, sees him, eye contact, heat rising to his face, running, away, away, away...._

_The white skins build their home there, on the clearing, only the two of them. He checks on them every now and then. They don't notice- Hunk does though._

_"I can't believe you! This has to stop, they could be dangerous!"_  
_How it happened he doesn't know, the white skins are behind them all of a sudden. The small one must have heard them because he had kept a close eye at dark hair - well mostly._  
_Hunk was scared, dark hair was calm, small one searched for something in a weird square shaped object that they opened._  
_Green flashes and different tongues became one language._

_"A translation spell.", small one calls it._

_Dark hair is Keith, small one Katherine, Keith calls him Lance- his real name too complicated for him to pronounce. He likes it._

_They are all the same, magic, colored energies, red blue yellow green..._

_A year is a blur,_

_A blur of laughter, fighting, competition, moments in the dark, nights spent on a campfire, training in the daylight, eating the meals Hunk cooks - they're family, he realizes_

_Six months, Nana passes away. Nothing left at the village of the elders, so he moves to Keith and Katherine - he takes Hunk with him._

_Another six months, things change. A kiss at a lake. Things change._

_He loves Keith, simple as that, life is more colorful, half a year living with Hunk and Katie, the other year and a half in a hut of their own._  
_Happiness, dimmed lights, purple eyes, Keiths smile. Bit's and bit's of Keith laughing, and smiling, the corners of his eyes crinkling beautifully._

_"Keith!"_  
_Katie bursting through the door._  
_"It's Matt! He found us! He's ALIVE!"_

_Katies brother, another person with him. Takashi, he refuses to leave Mathews side for even a second._

_Danger is coming, but they know where to go, they have friends in a far away land._

_Allura and her father Alfor, they say._  
_Almost two years of preparations, more and more white skins coming into the forests, building their streets and villages-_

_He can't seem to find the elders anymore._

_Finally ready, a smaller wooden bowl waiting for them at the ocean-_

Somebody recognized Keith.

_They're after them now._

_Keith's trying to bait them- he will die, Keith will die if he -_

_They get to him instead. He's being captured, drugged, he doesn't know what happened but he hurts all over._  
_Then there's a stake, an angry crowd._

KEITH

_What is he doing?! He shouldn't be here, what if they see, what if they - Keith can't -_  
_Hunk takes him, they leave. It's okay, they'll find him. He will find them._

_Lance is dying._

_But Keith is safe---_

* * *

  
Waking up in the pod was... uncomfortable. To say the least.  
He was coughing up gallons of that weird fluid, his skin was dry though, his hair too. But the pod was still closed.  
No matter how hard he smashed against the glass.

It was only then, when he was leaning against the tubes cool glass, that the weight of all of this hit him.

He is back.

HE IS BACK.

And he remembers them. All of them and everything that happened.

A small bubble of laughter finds his way up to his throat, his mind singing.  
Keith lives, Hunk and Katie and Matt and Takashi, they all live.  
All of them are safe, and - and he's back. They're _them_ again. A team.

A family.

His art ached. Both in a good and a bad way.

Because for him, everything was still the same. He still loved Keith, Katie was still like a sister and the smartest person he knew with Matt following closely behind. Hunk was still his best friend and Takashi was still the older brother he never had.  
But, were they still the same? What had changed for them?

_500 years...._

The glass door slid open, KaM2's voice announcing that he was done.

Stepping down from the platform was tricky to say the least, he could see next to nothing _,_ his head was still swimming and his legs felt like pudding.

Clutching the thick glass door, he staggered down the two, maybe three steps sighing in relief when he was  finally out of that damn tube.

But then, while looking around, he saw someone.  
A person, slightly slouched on the floor, leaning against the console Pidge had used earlier. He could hear the even breathing, indicating the person was sleeping.

A little confused as to why anyone would be sleeping here of all places, Lance staggered toward the console.

The closer he got, the more familiar the outlines of the persons body looked. Dark, messed up hair, sticking out in odd angles, faint blue light barely illuminating the pale, in this light almost white ski-

"Keith", his voice cracked a little at the end, too high to sound like himself.

He blinked. It was Keith.

_Keithkeithkeithkeithkeithkeithkeithkeith-_

His heart - or is it just his head?- is chanting, not even caring that he fell as he tried to stumble his way over to the sleeping man. He just crawled the few feet that were left.

"Keith....", he whispers again, because just seeing him, was apparently enough to erase any logic from his mind. Because it Keith and that was all that mattered.

His hand was shaking as he reached out to Keith.  
He didn't know if it was because of the .... - well thing he's just been through or because of the fact that he was finally able to touch the person he loved most in this world, made him more than just nervous.

His fair skin literally glowed in the tubes faint blue light, he was almost scared to touch it. Keith looked so peaceful.

He remembered... he remembered now.  
Many, many nights, next to Keith, watching him sleep, with that slight smile and lax features.

So happy. They used to be so, so, hap-

"I still can't believe that you changed his security level to 15! I don't want him to touch my shit Shiro! HE CAN TOUCH MY SHIT NOW!"  
He heard the voices before he heard the quiet swishing of the door opening.

"He's my second in command now, it's just appropriate that he-"

"Did I say I was done? - No I'm NOT. You do realize that we'll have to search at least 27 other rooms now that he can just ent-"

It was Pidge and Shiro, he knew. He knew it was them but- but those names didn't fit the voices. It just didn't feel right. 

His head hurt.

It hurt and the others had stopped talking. They were walking now, quickly, and Lance forced his gaze away from Keith towards them.  
Shiro - no... no. Takashi? He looked the same. Was he the same?

Takash-...iro?

He shook his head violently, willing it all to go away, to let him have a moment to breathe.

Fuck it.

Whatever his name was now, rushed past him to Keiths side.

"Wha-", Lance wanted to protest reaching out a hand to swat at the much bigger pair of hands that was now genty picking up Keith. But a small, pale hand placed itself on his own and stopped him.

"It's okay, we'll take him to his room.", a voice said. His head was split again. Between past and his new life. He turned around, breathing heavily now, his head just _hurt_.

He looked at the person behind him. Big hazel eyes, hiding behind huge round glasses, thin lips pressed into a thin line to stop them from trembling.  
It didn't really work.  
The hair was shorter than he remembered and the bangs a little rougher, the glasses were new too, but their features were still the same.  
Two faces merged into one and he felt the urge to cry.  
"Ka... Kat-tie?", his voice was trembling and he felt so sorry. He should have recognized her, he should have- why didn't he- -

There were tears glittering in those big doe eyes, but she blinked them away.

"Yeah...", she said quietly, averting their- her?- eyes to watch Shiro leave with Keith. But Lance couldn't take his eyes off- ... Katie.

She had changed so much.... what ... what happened? What happened when he was gone.

"Come on, let's go take care of you...", she said and took his still shaking hand into her own.

He was still shaking all over when they left the room.

* * *

  
He's been trying to decide for a total of ten minutes and he still wasn't sure.  
What was better?  
The almost complete darkness of the pod-room or the too-brightness of the rest of the castle?  
As he squinted against the bright lamps again, he decided that, yes, the lights were definitely worse.

He hadn't said a word ever since Pid- _Katie_ had taken him back to the med-station. He didn't even _know_   what to say.  
He was afraid to say something wrong.  
And he was _so_ sorry.  
So sorry for being so stupid this whole time. He should have seen the connections, should have been quicker, how did he not recognize her, or, Hunk or-

"Hey,", Katie said somewhere off to his right, pulling him from his trance. "don't think to hard about whatever it is. Take it slow, your brain is still in recovery."

He nodded at her and quickly looked down at the steaming mug in his hands again.  
She had given him a cup of tea. Raspberry and vanilla.

"Okay. Your vitals look good...", they- she - her...- god damn it this was so weird - Katie said. "If your head hurts, I can only apologize. It's a common reaction to the very huge, very sudden input of information. And once the quint wears off it wont be as fuzzy anymore too."

Lance nodded again.

He knew exactly what they meant. Now that he had had a little time being actually awake and somewhat collected he had noticed the slight smudge to his vision.

"In the next few days you might still get a few random flashbacks, just so that you know it's perfectly normal.", Katie added on and

Lance could see her take a seat on the bed across from his.  
However he just still couldn't look her in the eye. He felt.... guilty.

Guilty for dying?  
For being stupid enough to get caught and bring all of them pain? Yes. But also for not getting a thing even though the hints were literally _thrown_ at him.

"Does the short hair look that bad?"

He frowned and looked up at a smiling Katie. It was a sad smile, a reluctant one. She was trying to lighten the mood.

_Oh Katie... I'm so sorry..._

He sighed and looked down again.

"No it... it suits you.", he said quietly, barely above a whisper. "Is uhm... is 'Katie' still okay?"

"Of course."

Silence fell between them, he didn't know what to say. It .... it's just that five centuries had passed and when they had finally met again he didn't even _remember them._

"Okay, enough of this.", Katie said, jumping off her bed and crossing the room to sit next to him. "What's bothering you?"

She was too clever. Or he was too obvious. It made him wonder if he had changed at all?

He played dumb anyways. "Nothing really..."

"Lance...", she sighed. He could literally feel the 'worried puppy eye look' she was giving him bore into the side of his face.  "You can tell me. You know that."

He sighed and nodded. 

_Not_ talking about it would certainly not make the tight feeling in his chest go away.

"I feel... guilty.", he muttered, hoping that if he was just quiet enough, maybe they would overhear it.

"What about?"

"I.... I fucked up our plans and - and got myself killed. And when I finally came back, I just - I caused you so much trouble and pain and-", he broke off midsentence, taking a quick sip from his tea to stop himself from crying. 

The dream he had had, about his death, it had been bad enough. But actually remembering it again? Knowing that it really happened and recalling what it actually  _felt_ like to burn alive.

And then between all the smoke and angry people, Keiths crying face, staring up at him with wide, sad eyes. 

He shook his head, trying to get rid of the memory.

Katie was not saying anything, probably trying to choose her words wisely. 

"Our plans... that day, were more or rather ... impossible.", she said cautiously. "One way or another, one of us would have wound up dead. It all depended on what the Galra would do. It was really not your fault."

He knew she was right. On that day, it had been him, or Keith.  
But he still felt that it was somehow his fault, even if it all could have been worse.

"And when you came back a few weeks ago? We knew it was you and we still didn't tell you.", she continued. "Our job is to find RE's, tell them what they are and help them. We ignored that. We straight up ignored that, just because you were _you_ and we wanted to be together when you found out. We willingly endangered you which led to you almost dying  _again._ So if anyone should be feeling guilty right now, it's me."

He looked over at her and saw that she was also close to crying. Because she was right. 

"I'm so sorry Lance...", she whispered, her bottom lip quivering as she did so. "We never wanted that you .... we just..."

He leaned in a little and slung his left arm around their slim shoulders. "It's okay... "

They sat there like that for a while. Just quietly thinking about all the things that were currently floating around in the heavy air around them, and, you know, trying not to cry while doing so. 

"So what happened?", Lance asked finally. "When I was gone?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr: german-potato-of-doom  
> Instagram: g_p_o_d  
> Feel free to just... you know text me I'm always up to talk about Klance and stuff XD or just stuff in general


	9. Without you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was happy to at least know what he had missed out on now but -, just... SO MANY QUESTIONS.   
> He knew that Pidge had already guessed what was running through his head. They did this frequently after all.   
> So it was no surprise when they hopped off the bed and rolled their shoulders in an attempt to loosen their stance.   
> "Let's get you to the lab and talk some science shall we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well hello guys it's me again!  
> I like to call this one: Liz Nye the science guy!  
> Seriously, I'm almost proud of myself to come up with something SO COOL  
> So I hope you have as much fun reading as I have writing it :) 
> 
> (Oh and, if you like apple please don't hate me for this, it was meant as a joke :) )

"We set over to America without you. It's not like we had a choice after all. That was around 1499. We stayed in Alfors and Allies village and ... well we _recovered_. It's not every day that part of your family just... vanishes. We set up our 'base' there, gathered all the things we knew about our kind. That was more or less the birth of Voltron, the first 'civilized' Organisation of Paladins on this planet. 

We started writing down everything we knew and gathered things we still had to learn about. Like the ability to reincarnate. 

But it took a long time. Maybe one decade, maybe less.

Keith though.... You know him. He was .... angry and impatient. His mother, his father and now you? It was too much for him. He demanded answers. He wanted to know how and when he would get you back. 

So he just left and looked for his answers himself. 

And while he always came back, we still worried. _A lot._

So we made rules. Seeing as we were a group of seven we split into three teams whose members changed up every ten years or so. Three of us always stayed behind at the base to gather more information, while the other four went to travel around, looking for more paladins out there, people that might be able to help.

It was a slow process and Keith was quickly getting tired of it. By the time Coran joined us in 1626 Keith had already disappeared again ...  five times. At some point we just gave up and cast a tracking spell upon his belongings so that we would at least be able to see where he was when he disappeared again. We put it on the drawing he made of you, because we knew he would never leave without it. 

So we just left him alone when he wanted to be.

As you might know things were not always...  _friendly_ in America. And with Alfor and Allura being natives and Hunk being Cuban ... things started becoming difficult around the middle of the 19th century. Sure, Coran as a brit with a good position in the villages society, had always been able to keep them out of trouble but... we all knew that we had to get moving soon.  
So we did and moved here.

We founded Altea in 1856 and built up a _real_ base. Our castle.

We got a library, me and Matt got our own research lab and we got a tracking and observation room where we could keep an eye on the paladin population in the world...

We took turns at running the castle again. Now that people knew of us we had to make it believable, and had to look _human._  

So we started taking advantage of our ability to change our appearance. It's a spell we got from a paladin from Italy. 

We had to age ourselves up frequently, change our faces and body builds and heights and all that... It's something we have to keep going 24/7 but, you know, after a while it barely bothers you anymore. 

The more Paladins we found, the more knowledge we gathered. I started taking over most of the shifts at the castle because I didn't want to leave my lab. I searched and searched and I found out that there's a certain pattern to the reincarnation of Paladins. I released my hypothesis on reincarnation cycles in 1873. It basically says that a Paladin takes the timespan of their age of death times the timespan of their age plus the timespan of their age. So in your case it was 22 times 22 plus 22, 506 years. 

For my hypothesis to work out though... I had to do something.

Women were .... they weren't treated equal back then. I would have liked to say that Paladins were smarter than that, but some where not. Society has always been stubborn.

So I cut my hair. And replaced the dresses with suits.

I changed my name to Christian Holt and I was finally respected.

Now centuries later the people realized that  'Katherine' was just as smart as 'Christian'. But too late is too late.

At some point I stopped caring though. Gender is not important. Not for me anyways. Everything that counts for me is the science and the things I achieve. Like the retrieval programs, the research about our anatomy and our origins and so on.

So it really doesn't matter to me if you call me Katie, or Pidge, as long as you don't call me Christian because that was more than just cringe worthy.

Anyhow,

Hunk and Ally worked out a way for RE's and Paladins that didn't know about us to find our base. It's a field with different layers of Paladin energy, one for each kind of Paladin. It creates a draw towards Altea, and most likely what brought you here.

It was not long after this that Shay came here. She followed the draw of the field all the way from New Orleans to Altea. And... well, ever since 1936 Hunk and Shay are a couple. They married in 1937.

From then up to now we always worked to improve our technology, me and Matt that is. We built the healing pods and invented KaM. KaM2, the program you're familiar with now is her updated version from the eighties.

Our technology has always been _at least_   twenty years ahead of the humans'.

When you finally arrived here, Keith had gone to Europe with Matt and Shiro to take part in the CoPOWW, Congress of Paladin Organisations World Wide. It's a gathering of the heads of the biggest Paladin Organisations in the world. Like the Russians, the Brits, the French , the German and so on.

As Shiros second in command it's his duty now to take care of allies and all of this... politics. He doesn't like it but does it anyways. For Shiro.

He's our leader and for Keith he is like a brother so there's little he wouldn't do for him.

Sadly, this allows him to rise up in the security ranks too. Which means he is now officially able to override my commands and touch my shit.

Which brings us back here, where I sit here, giving you the short version of our story. Everyone of us has his own different stories to tell and .... well it will take a while until you know everything that happened but we have plenty of time."

They - yes he had settled for 'Pidge' now - gave him a tight lipped smile from the side. The things they'd said.... it affected them, so much was certain. 

Lance understood. 

Life is hard, he knew that, and he always thought that a human lifespan was reasonable, short but perfectly fine with all the struggle they had to go through. And here they were, having to push through more than just one life, not to talk about all the other things going on. Like the slavery and segregation or the discrimination of women. And all the wars! 

After 506 years of constantly working and struggling to stay out of other peoples sight they had still managed to stay their self. 

He was happy to at least know what he had missed out on now but -, just... SO MANY QUESTIONS. 

What were paladins exactly? Pidge said they'd studied their physique so maybe they could tell him more about their magic, it was something he had never understood.

And why did they still look like their old selves even though they said they were using spells to change their appearance? 

It was only two of a million questions and he knew that Pidge had already guessed what was running through his head. They did this frequently after all. 

So it was no surprise when they hopped off the bed and rolled their shoulders in an attempt to loosen their stance. 

"Let's get you to the lab and talk some science shall we?"

* * *

Pidges lab was just as Lance had imagined it. 

It was just as huge as the room with the tubes but it was lighter and there was a line that marked the middle of the room to separate it into two halves. The equipment on either sides was the same but while the left was completely clean, all the papers stacked and with folders littering the broad desk, the right one was a battlefield of soda cans, coffee mugs, papers and empty chip bags strewn all over the high tech equipment.

Pidge went straight to the right. 

Lance shook his head and chuckled to himself. They really didn't change one bit.... 

For a few moments he just watched Pidge shuffling around and getting out one of those holograph- tablet things you always see in those science fiction movies. 

When Pidge noticed him staring they grinned up at him and waggled their eyebrows. "Neat isn't it? Made it myself."

Lance nodded appreciatively as he kept eyeing the glowing piece of tech in their small hands. 

"Matt and I actually have a bet going on about how long it'll take apple to figure out how to make these. He says another ten years and I say huwai'll beat them to the punch."

"Wow Pidge. Wow, that was harsh."

"Oh no.", they sighed and even stopped tapping for a second right there. "No, no, no. You _didn't_ become an apple person."

"Well _I_ like my Ipho-"

"Disappointed but not surprised.", Pidge muttered and shook their head again, before continuing to tap away on their tablet. But before Lance could protest any further Pidge pulled up a human sized hologram right in front of them. 

"Anyhow, in favor of distracting myself from that horrible new discovery,", they said, gesturing dramatically. "I'll teach you all the magical stuff about our body and how it works. And, what makes up our 'magic'. So listen closely, it's getting complicated now, and if anything is unclear as _immediately._ Okay?"

Lance tore his gaze away from the slightly seethrough person in front of them to turn and look at Pidge. They were looking at him expectantly so he nodded to them, to show them that he acknowledged what they had said.

"Okay, so", they pulled up closer to the head area of the hologram person and highlighted the brain. "humans only use about ten percent of their brain. You knew that right?"

"Well yeah. What about it?", Lance asked as he watched as a small part of the brain lit up. 

"Paladins are able to use the full 100 percent as soon as they've reached their full capacity.", Pidge replied with a quick side glance to gauge Lances' reaction. Lance could see more and more parts of the brain light up until the whole brain was glowing. "It's because we have an extra muscle that stores 'energy'."

They zoomed in again and pointed at a small peanut shaped object nestled between the tissue of the brain. "This is what we call the marker. I already told you about that one. Do you remember?"

Lance nodded slowly. He faintly remembered Pidge telling him about the marker as the place that 'marks' their different abilities.

"Depending on the place your marker is positioned in, you'll either be a white, yellow, blue, red, green, or black Paladin. We'll get to the differences later, but for now you have to know that this is a copy of _my_ brain. The marker of a green Paladin is located in the left half of the brain as you can see. The exact location is a little more complicated to explain but just remember that it's right beneath the part of my brain that enables me to think. So seeing as the marker is the part where the energy that makes us special originates from, the parts of the brain that are closest to it are the ones that are affected the most, which explains why green Paladins are naturally smarter than other Paladins."

Lance nodded along, keeping a close eye on the animation that now showed green light coming off the marker in small waves.

"The energy leaves the marker through our blood and activates the rest of the brain to full capacity.", they said and zoomed out again showing an animation of the green light spreading throughout the brain.  "Ever seen the movie 'Lucy'?"

Lance frowned and looked over at Pidge. "The one with Scarlet Johansson?"

"That one."

"Uhm yeah I saw the trailer, but that was years ago..."

"Okay so the story is that she get's drugged with something that kind of powers up her brain and enables her to do all kinds of badass stuff. I can show you a few shots of it later but what I was trying to tell you was that we're basically able to do everything depicted in that movie and more.", they said with a smirk playing around their thin lips. "A friend of mine wrote it."

Lance would gladly have commented on that one because - _dios mio -_ did that mean a friend of Pidge knows Scarlet Johansson?! Does  _Pidge_ know Scarlet Johansson?! 

But they were already talking again. 

"So the energy goes from your brain, to your heart and from there into your whole body.", they zoomed out onto the whole body picture again where Lance could see the thin green lines spreading from the figures torso through the whole body until every blood vessel was glowing green and the thin limbs looked patterned. "It speeds up our metabolism and enables us to heal faster. Oh and-", they dug around in their pocket before pulling out and sticking something into their pointer finger. A needle maybe? "My blood is green."

Lance frowned but when Pidge showed him their finger there was indeed a green substance leaking from the small prick at the tip of their finger. 

"But...", Lance cocked his head to the side. "I don't remember bleeding in my previous life but in this second one my blood has always been red... Shouldn't it be blue then?"

Pidge chuckled lightly as they wiped their finger off on the hem of their shirt. "That's because your energy was still stowed away in your marker. When you're born for the first time your parents are always paladins so they can show you how to release your energy in a healthy way, but like I told you before, REs are not necessarily born into a Paladin family - in fact only less than two percent of them are. The rest of them are born into a human household. You never learned about your abilities in this life so a lot of pressure built up on your marker and the energy was forced out. Gimme your hand."

Lance held out his hand when they motioned him to again. With a quick motion they plucked the thin needle into his finger, it barely even hurt, and surprisingly a drop of blue blood formed at the tip of his finger.

"Manda cojones (1)...", he muttered as he smeared the blood between his fingertips. The prick had already closed up.

"I don't know Spanish but you're probably right.", they said as they turned back to the hologram. "With that energy our senses are a lot better than normal humans senses and we are able to defy the usual laws of physics and bend the energy in the air around us."

Lance frowned as the hologram started moving, running on the spot or shooting green bolts out of their fingertips. "One in a million?"

"Yes...", Pidge muttered their eyes growing somewhat distant. "Back then there were more of us - at least comparatively. There were more 'newborn' Paladins then, now 90 percent of the Paladins being born are RE's... what happened? What _changed_?" 

Lance could see the gears turning in Pidges head and their expression was almost worrying.

"Pidge?", Lance asked with a frown knitting his brows together.

They didn't react immediately, in fact Lance had to ask again for them to notice him. When they finally looked up they looked like a deer caught in headlights. Then they sighed and their shoulders slumped. "I did it again didn't I?"

" _Again_?", Lance asked, still frowning. 

"The question has been bothering me for a while already... I sometimes get caught up thinking.", they said as they picked up their tablet again. "Anyways..."

The green hologram disappeared and a white one took it's place. It stood in the middle of a field and Lance could see a village being built behind them. "We're going to talk about weaknesses now."

The village in the background started evolving into a city and the field eventually turned into a street. "We can't die of age, since, as you might see, we don't age."

A yellow figure appeared in the foreground when Pidge swiped to the left and pushed the white aside. "And sickness doesn't affect us either."

All around them were sick people,  _dying_ people, but they still stood straight, even as one of the others coughed up blood. 

"And while cuts and bullets  _hurt_ , they heal in seconds. Even cutting off limbs is not a problem. First our body seals the wounds and then with a little time the muscles and skin grow back."

Another swipe left and a red one appeared in line, littered in cuts and bullet holes, but with their chin raised high and their shoulders squared. And Pidge was right, they faded quickly. 

"There are only to efficient ways to kill a Paladin."

They said as their voice quieted a little and they swiped left yet again. 

Lance had to look away when he saw the blue figure collapsing to the floor and bursting into flames. "Burning us does the trick because it heats the energy in our blood up to the point where the energy evaporates and ends up in what I like to call the void. It's a place where the energy that used to be you gathers and turns into their former human shaped form again."

Lance remembered the feeling of his boiling blood as his hands struggled against the firm hold of the ropes around his wrists and he had to wrap his arms around his torso to keep himself from shuddering. 

"What's the other way?", he asked quietly, wishing for Pidge to just swipe left and end that horrible, horrible animation. But they didn't. 

"Beheading.", they sighed. "Without your heart your body can't pump blood and without a marker we can't pump energy, so when it's separated from the body the energy stops circulating and we die."

Lance swallowed thickly as his final moments flashed behind his eyes again. 

"But there are a few special cases.", Pidge said, finally swiping left and pushing the images to the back of his mind again. 

In front of them stood a new figure once again, purple now and missing an arm. The blunt stump was smoking and glowing in a slightly lighter purple. 

"What's that?", Lance asked, shocked at how weird and broken his voice sounded all of a sudden. 

"That's what happened to Shiro.", Pidge said with a guarded expression. "He tried to protect Matt from a Galra soldier that went after them with a flamethrower. His arm caught fire and was burnt up almost completely until we were able to get him to safety. The wound closed up just fine but the energy from his arm had already evaporated and it just... it wouldn't grow back." 

Lance stared at the place where the arm had been now smoking and scarred. It was horrifying and just thinking about the fact that it had been just the same people that had killed him too made his blood boil with anger. 

Pidge swiped left and a metal arm came into the picture and was being secured at the stump by the same green figure from earlier. "I changed his bayard into the shape of an arm and we were able to get it to function like a real arm would."

The hand part of the metal arm started glowing and the purple figure moved it around a little. 

"Shiro was the first case of a Paladin surviving fire I ever treated.", they added quietly as they ended the simulation. 

Lance didn't feel like saying anything. He suddenly felt impossible tired and a tight feeling pulled at his heart.

"A bayard, ", Pidge said, continuing with their presentation non the less. "is a weapon Matt and I designed to match our personal energies and intensify our natural abilities. There are different kinds of energies as you already know. White, yellow, blue, red, green, and black. But even within those categories none of the energies are the same. Imagine it like a fingerprint.", they explained as they picked up a small triangular object that lit up in a faint greenish light as they touched it's shiny white metal. "Those bayards are made in a way that they only recognize the energy they were originally activated with, meaning that once you have one, it will be _yours_ only."

Lance nodded as he watched Pidge show him how to open a bayard and turn it into your weapon of choice.

"And what was that about 'natural abilities'?", Lance asked when he was finally starting to feel less .... _empty._  

"Well I told you already that I- as well as all of the other green Paladins - am naturally smarter than others because of the specific position of my marker. This applies to all sorts of Paladins in their own ways. Yellow Paladins are more skilled with protection spells, white Paladins are best with mind control and illusions, blue Paladins are the fastest and the most of them are even able to control time to a certain level, red Paladins are more skilled with destructive spells and heal quicker as for black Paladins... well they are the most powerful of Paladins. Shiro let me scan his brain and.... his marker is almost as long as my pinky finger and sat right in the center of his brain.", They grinned proudly as they added, "He's not smarter than me though."

She pulled up a line up of the six colored figures from earlier.

"Essentially, every Paladin has the same abilities, but depending on which part of your brain is affected by the energy you'll be better at some things than others. So you'll choose something that matches your strengths to use your bayard for." 

Lance nodded along. "Wow that's ... that's cool. Was that ... it?"

Pidge laughed lightly. "For my part, yes. You'll still have to sit through sex-ed and reproduction science with Coran though."

He shuddered involuntarily and wrinkled his nose. "Seriously?", he groaned, as Pidge shut off their bayard and tablet and started laughing again. 

"I don't make the rules."

He was about to whine some more when he heard the telltale swish of the doors opening. 

"Where the  _hell_ is he Pidge?!", he heard an angry voice shout before the person it belonged to had even entered the room. " _Where_?! And why the  _fuck_ did no one fucking wake me up when -"

Lances' body shut down completely. Everything stopped, his heart didn't beat, he didn't breath, he didn't blink. The world stopped spinning and the room around them fell away. 

Amethyst crossed aquamarine and he fell in love all over again as he finally got his breath back.

"Keith..." "...Lance"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 - manda cojones = holy shit
> 
> Tumblr: german-potato-of-doom  
> Instagram: g_p_o_d  
> Feel free to just... you know text me I'm always up to talk about Klance and stuff XD or just stuff in general  
> (P.S.: I know I'm evil but I can't help all those cliffhangers XD)


	11. Quick message from the idiot who hasn't managed to check back in for like a year

Welllllll..... Hi 

*please don't be mad*

 

Okay so, the thing is - I tried putting smut into this when I was working on chapter 10 "Catching up" and was too much of a chicken to actually get on with it (pun not intended) 

So it just kinda sat on my workbench and over time I kind of forgot about it between all the other stuff that's going on in my life.

Long story short: School is a bitch that keeps me up at night and I'm too much of a coward to say dick on the internet (who would have thought)

 

B U T 

I'm really trying to pick this story up again because 

1\. I'm actually really passionate about this story and the stories the characters have yet to share 

and

2\. The guilt is killing me rn 

 

So, stay tuned I'm working on it, I've not disappeared and I'm thinking about you. 

(I'll be deleting this as soon as chapter 10 goes up)

 

Love you all, welcome back

Your german potato of doom 


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